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Thirty Days in the 

Land of the 

Mikado 



By 

Edward Valentine Price 



Illustrated 



Copyright 1908 

by 

Edward Valentine Price 



Two Copies 

FEB 24 



A 

11 



? 7 V 



•> 



Foreword 

I wish to impress upon all that I am not 
following in the footsteps of many of our 
British cousins who, after making a thirty-day 
tour of our own country, return home and 
proceed to write a history of the U. S. A. 
This is merely a daily log, hastily written, 
where I have jotted down a few of the 
many sights that came under my observation 
and how they impressed me at the time. 
Much of my information is meager and no 
doubt many of my conclusions not technically 
correct, but as this little log will not be the 
foundation for a text book, or the basis of 
any political campaign, it will probably pass 
for what it is intended, merely a few moments' 
entertainment for those of my friends who 
can not, as well as those who will not, spare 
the time necessary to make this delightful tour. 





The photographs in this log, with 
the exception of that of the Overland 
Limited and Wreck of the Dakota, 
were taken by Mrs. Price and my- 
self with an Eastman Pocket Kodak. 

— E. V. P. 



^aturfcag iEti*., Jfabruarg 23, 1907 

We boarded the Overland Limited, The 
Chicago & Northwestern Line, at 8:02 p.m., 
Wells Street station, and began our journey 
to the Orient. Good byes were said to kind 
friends who came to see us off. We scattered 
our belongings around the spacious drawing 
room in a home-like manner and prepared to 
make ourselves quite comfortable during the 
three days* trip to San Francisco. 

Our baggage consisted of two medium 
sized steamer trunks; a small basket trunk 
containing our steamer rugs and coats; one 
traveling bag each, umbrellas and an Eastman 
pocket camera. Besides our regular Winter 
clothing we carried a small supply of Spring 
clothing. 

Our money consisted of a book each of 
American Express Company checks in $20 
and $50 denominations; a letter of credit on 
London made payable to the order of either 
myself or wife. (Very few Japanese banks 
keep ac- 
counts in 
America, 
usually 
only in 
New York 
and San 
Francisco, 




The Overland Limited 



but thev all have a London account.) A 
comfortable night's rest fitted us for our first 
day's travel. 

£utt&aij. Jrhrnary 24 

We had an early breakfast in the dining car 
just as the broad lowlands ot the Missouri 
Valley came in sight. Reached Omaha on 
time, but left there two hours late. The en- 
tire day was spent traveling the rising grades 
across Nebraska to the Rockv Mountains. 
Although double-tracked much of the way 
to Cheyenne, the Union Pacific is unable to 
handle its immense traffic, and we lost in 
place of gaining time. 

fflonftait. ifrbruaru 2 5 

Found us crossing the rolling plains of 
Wyoming, three hours late. Green River, the 
Continental divide, the Bear River Vallev, 
Echo Cannon were passed, and the beautiful 
Wasatch range loomed in sight at dusk. 
Ogden was reached in a blinding rain, five 
hours behind time. 

aurafcaij. IFrbruartj 26 

The most of the previous night and the 
better part of the day were spent crossing the 
State ot Nevada, noted chieRv for its two 
United States Senators, and its small popu- 
lation. It did not sound altogether like a 
joke when one traveler who made the remark: 
"I don't see why God ever made the State of 



Nevada," received the reply: "It was not 
God but Congress who made the State of 
Nevada." We went through the forty miles 
of snow sheds across the Sierra Nevadas in 
the afternoon, and within the space of a few 
minutes passed quickly from the regions of 
perpetual snow to the blooming orchards in 
the valleys of California, landing in Oakland 
safely, but four hours late, at 1 1 p. m. 

WtbntBbay, iFrbruarg 27 

We stopped with friends in Oakland, spent 
the day in San Francisco sight-seeing and 
completing the arrangements made in Chicago 
for our transportation to Japan and return. 
One must see San Francisco to appreciate the 
fearful havoc wrought by the earthquake. 
We are so accustomed to reading of floods, 
famine, earthquakes and great disasters re- 
sulting in terrific loss of life and property 
that we cannot fully comprehend what it 
means by merely reading the reports of news- 
papers. Even after seeing the hundreds of 
gaunt walls of the once beautiful buildings, 
the millions of tons of twisted steel and iron, 
the piles of debris covering a space of four 
or five miles, one cannot, without serious 
reflection, begin to realize what it all means. 
The once dazed and terror-stricken inhabi- 
tants are beginning to move with the same 
unconquerable "I Will" spirit that made 
Chicago rise from the disaster of thirty-five 



years ago, but it is almost pitiful to note the 
desperate efforts being made to bring order 
out of an almost endless sea of chaos. 

We visited the Pacific Mail steamship 
"China," on which we were to make our 
home for the next five or six days; our state- 
room being No. 22 on the "China" to Hon- 
olulu, where we remained eight days; sailing 
from Honolulu to Yokohama on the Pacific 
Mail steamship "Mongolia," stateroom No. 
89. We chose the Pacific Mail route from 
San Francisco, rather than the shorter route 
via Great Northern Steamship Co. from 
Seattle, on account of it being so much 
milder, the former at no time passing anv 
further north than San Francisco latitude, 
while the latter, by making a great circle to 
the north, passing in sight of the Alutian 
Islands, shortens the distance several hundred 
miles from Seattle to Yokohama, but is a 
cold, damp, disagreeable route at almost any 
time of the vear. 




Pacific Mail S. S. "China' 



GUjurB&ay, iFrhruarg 28 

This being sailing day, we left Oakland 
early, crossed the ferry to San Francisco, and 
drove to the Pacific Mail docks, where we 
met a number of friends who had kindly 
come to wish us bon voyage. After attending 
to our baggage and having it placed in our 
stateroom, we returned to the deck to say 
our last good byes to friends, and watch 
other passengers do likewise. The much- 
traveled Englishman, German, Hindoo and 
the Chinaman all seemed to have some 
acquaintance in San Francisco as well as 
ourselves and other Americans. Boxes of 
flowers and telegrams poured aboard the last 
few minutes. Promptly at i p. m. a big 
gong sounded; the deck steward cried "all 
ashore!" The big first officer on the bridge 
bellowed out "cast off!" the tackle creaked, 
the gangway cleared the ship's side, and as 
the big rope cable slipped, a lady by my side 
said: "There goes the last string." The 
big ship backed slowly away from the dock 
for a few hundred feet, swung around, the 
engines were reversed, we waved our last 
adieus to friends, and we were really on our 
journey to the Orient. 

Things oriental were in evidence at once. 
A big Chinese gong, manipulated by an 
almond-eyed celestial, announced "tiffin," 



our first Japanese word, meaning lunch. 
Everybody present. We hurried through 
our lunch and returned to the upper deck 
with our field-glasses to get a farewell glimpse 
of San Francisco and the harbor, the Presidio 
and Cliff House on the port side and the 
lighthouses on Pt. Bonita on the starboard 
side as we passed through the Golden Gate 
into the great Pacific. A few miles out and 
the grizzly old pilot who had brought us 
safely out of the harbor, said good bye, passed 
over the side of the ship on the rope ladder, 
and deftly swung himself into a rowboat that 
came out from a lightship anchored near our 
course. Taking a westerly course, the shores 
of California soon faded away and the Farlone 
Islands, seen on a clear day from the Cliff 
House, were passed about 4:30 p. m. 

We hunted up the ship's postmaster, found 
several letters and telegrams from friends at 
home, wishing us a pleasant journey and a safe 
return. Nothing is appreciated more than a 
message from friends as you step aboard a 
ship for a long journey. We put on our 
big stormcoats and until dark, from the 
upper deck, watched the incoming steamers 
and sailing craft headed for San Francisco 
harbor. 



10 



Jrttmij, ifflarrij 1, 

After a fairly good night's rest, found us 
headed in a S. W. course with a stiff breeze 
at our heels. Only three of the eight pas- 
sengers belonging at our table were present 
at breakfast ; one a Frenchman with a German 
accent, who had traveled extensively, and an 
old lady, seventy-seven years of age, from 
Galena, 111., and myself. We elected the 
old lady commodore of the fleet and she 
never missed a meal during the entire voyage 
to Honolulu. 

Nothing to do, so I began to find out 
what I could about our ship. I learned she 
was built in Glasgow seventeen years ago 
for George Gould, but was not quite fast 
enough to suit him and was sold to the 
Pacific Mail Co. She is 440 feet long, 1 1,000 
tons displacement, rigged with four masts, 
two crossed with yards holding sails; three 
decks above water, the promenade being very 
comfortable ; very roomy between decks, 
making the ceilings of cabins and staterooms 
extraordinarily high. For years was the finest 
and fastest steamship on the Pacific. The 
officers are all European and the crew of 160 
men, Asiatic; firemen, sailors, cooks and 
waiters, Chinese ; the cabin boys, Japanese. 
The Commander, Capt. Friele, has been in 
the company's employ thirty years — a rough 
looking old salt, and a fine disciplinarian. 



// 



Chinese sailors are splendid workers. Dur- 
ing the heavy wind of March ist and 2nd, 
which was in a favorable direction, the sail, 
seldom used, was hoisted, giving us a chance 
to see the Chinese sailors work aloft. Dressed 
in oriental style, loose blouse, all wearing 
the historic cue — they looked like monkeys 
swinging around on the masts. They are all 
employed at Hong Kong, and are not per- 
mitted to land in San Francisco. The 
steamship company is required to give the 
government a bond of $500 on each Chinese 
sailor entering San Francisco harbor, guaran- 
teeing that each one will be returned to 
Hong Kong. They are said to be very 
reliable and are much liked by all ship offi- 
cers, many of the present crew having been 
on the "China" ever since she was built. I 
am told, however, that at critical times they 




At Sea, Chinese Sailor going aloft 



12 



always become panic-striken, and frequently 
in case of accident it becomes necessary to 
use extreme measures to restore order. I 
noticed at the fire drill the officers all had 
big revolvers strapped on them. 

The only excitement of the day was a fight 
between two Chinese aft on the lower deck. 
One had a monkey-wrench, the other a big 
bottle. When I went below the one with 
the monkey-wrench was seated on a box and 
the ship's surgeon was sewing up his head. 
Although there was no referee, it looked to 
me as though the Chinaman with the big 
bottle had won. 

Our passenger list consisted of sixty-five 
first cabin ; forty Asiatic and fifteen European 
steerage; 3,000 tons of freight for Hong 
Kong and Manila. 

San Francisco lies between latitude 38 
and 40 N. The Hawaiian Islands between 
Latitude 20 and 24 N.; just inside the 
Tropic of Cancer in the torrid zone, 2,080 
miles S. W. of San Francisco. On our 
maps they seem directly west of the lower 
part of the peninsula of lower California. 
The big compass on forward deck indicated 
a S. W. course. The breeze that had follow- 
ed us all day, stiffened into a blow by night. 
Made 340 miles by noon the first day. 



13 



'aturfcag, ifflarrlj 2 

Dawned in a perfect gale that continued 
all day and night. The waves rolled moun- 
tain high, looking at times as though they 
would overwhelm us, but the good ship 
never varied from her course, riding the 
rough sea like a gull. AH day the big 
steamer rolled and tossed, wave after wave 
broke over us ; the decks were wet and slip- 
pery ; all entrances on port side were locked, 
for the deck on that side was unsafe ; the 
few steamer chairs on the starboard side were 
lashed so they could not slip off; more 
officers than passengers in sight; not over 
half a dozen passengers were on deck; only 
seventeen showed up in the dining cabin. 
The old lady of seventy-seven did not miss 
a meal. She seemed to think many more 
could have come down had they tried. After 
"tiffin" I managed to get Mrs. P. on deck 
in a steamer chair, but she could see nothing 
"grand" in the spectacle as I had described 
it, being too sick to even hold her head up. 

At 3 p. m. we sighted on port side the 
"Nippon Maru," a Japanese passenger steam- 
er, but under lease by Pacific Mail Steamship 
Co., from Japan and Honolulu, bound for 
San Francisco. She was not as fortunate as 
the steamer "China," having to face the gale 
that was following us. We could, with our 
glasses, see her rise on the big waves, then 



// 



she would pass entirely out of our sight but 
all the time with her nose pointed right into 
the storm. She was then sixteen hours be- 
hind time, lost since leaving Honolulu, while 
we were speeding along before the wind with 
our great sails set, ahead of time. 

The big white sea gulls seen off the coast 
of California had long since deserted us and 
their places taken by species of a brown color 
and with much longer wings. Night and 
day these scavengers of the sea follow the 
trackless path of big steamers and seem to 
know the hour for meal-time fully as well as 
passengers. Made 360 miles by noon second 
day. 

#tmtmg, ilarrlf 3 

The storm of the past thirty-six hours sub- 
sided about noon, although it continued so 
rough no one could walk the promenade deck 
on port side until late in the afternoon, when 
so many strange faces began to appear that 
those of us who had been on deck constantly 
began to wonder if during the night a stop 
had not been made some place and more 
passengers taken aboard. None had been 
"seasick,'* however, but some acknowledged 
having had a severe headache. From the 
groans I had heard during the past forty-eight 
hours I fully expected at least a dozen funer- 
als at sea. An uneventful day, no services 



15 



on board. By night only a gentle breeze 
followed us, the stars shone brightly and the 
beautiful evening was passed by the revived 
passengers lounging on the promenade decks 
in groups, chatting and singing familiar airs. 
Made 376 miles by noon. 

iKmttmg, iHarrlj 4 

Everybody up for breakfast; quite a few 
who had tender recollections dined on deck. 
The Frenchman with German accent and 
proclivities, at our table, has an appetite that 
is the wonder of the ship. He eats every- 
thing on the bill of fare. He is a good sailor 
and during the storm he ordered double por- 
tions — seemed to think on such occasions the 
company could well afford it on account of 
the limited number of passengers who paid 
and refused to eat; has traveled much and 
makes a very agreeable companion, for he has 
a stock of good stories and his peculiar accent 
adds a good flavor to them. Another very 
agreeable steamer acquaintance we found in 
Miss Latham, of Pueblo, Colo., a bright, well 
educated young woman, a graduate of Chicago 
University, on a pleasure trip enroute to 
Hong Kong. An ideal day, the most perfect 
we ever saw at sea; one of the kind described 
by the ad writers for big ocean liners, always 
looked forward to by travelers, but seldom 
seen, and never forgotten. Now in latitude 
26 46' N., longitude 147 57' W. Made 367 
miles during past twenty-four hours. 



16 



®u?B&ag, iiarrij 5 

Dawned on us well down in the tropics. 
The N. E. trade wind that has followed us 
ever since leaving the California coast, some- 
times blowing over us harshly, sometimes 
only a fanning breeze, but always full of 
ozone, made us forget we were rapidly pass- 
ing from the frozen north into the torrid 
zone. As we near the equator, the sunrise as 
well as the sunset, is wonderfully brilliant, 
and the sky and the ocean of the deepest blue. 
The mission of the trade winds is a benefi- 
cent one; it softens the heat of the equatorial 
and tempers the cold of the frozen regions, 
making equitable conditions. We are near- 
ing the end of the first part of our long 
voyage, being 1,800 miles from San Francisco 
and 300 from Honolulu. Our captain does 
not want to drop anchor in Honolulu before 
9 a. m. tomorrow, so our sails are furled and 
we are moving along slowly under steam. 
Latitude 21 18' N. Made 367 miles the last 
twenty-four hours. 

HUfcnrB&ag, iHarrij 6 

The big gong sounded an early call at 
6 a. m. The Hawaiian Islands sighted. A 
mist was falling, light clouds overhung the 
mountain tops, obscuring a good view of these 
mid-sea dots as we steamed into the harbor 
of Honolulu at 8:30 a. m. Here a rigid 



17 



inspection is made by quarantine officers, 
much more so than on the Atlantic coast. 
No ship surgeon's declaration goes. All 
the crew and steerage passengers are lined 
up on the lower deck, and cabin passen- 
gers lined up in the dining salon. As each 
one's name is called, he or she walks past 
the quarantine officials. There was some 
little protest by a lady living on the corner 
of Forty-seventh Street and Kenwood Ave- 
nue, Chicago, who did not happen to be 
dressed, but the officers kindly delayed mat- 
ters some twenty minutes and waited her 
convenience. She must have a very patient 
husband. We landed quietly at the dock 
at 9:30 a. m., without any of the loud, noisy 
orders given by Atlantic liners when dock- 
ing. The Chinese sailors have all been 
with the ship so long they do their work 




Honolulu Harbor 



IS 



quickly and quietly without giving the big 
first officer any chance whatever to make the 
passengers believe that he is the man who 
shoveled all the coal and did all the other 
work on the entire voyage from San Francisco. 

We were agreeably surprised in the Albert 
Young Hotel, a large, modern, up-to-date 
hotel, managed in the very best of style, 
better than anything we saw in Italy and far 
ahead of anything found in Japan. Here 
we received the first news of the loss of the 
"Dakota" of the Great Northern Steamship 
Co. line, off the Japan coast. I had figured 
on sailing on her from Seattle, but gave up 
the idea after finding we could not get away 
in time. Sent a cablegram home announcing 
our safe arrival ; called on our customer and 
went for a short automobile ride. 




Albert Young Hotel, Honolulu 



19 



QUittrsfcay, iHarrlj 7 

Arose early and climbed "Punch Bowl" 
hill, an extinct volcano crater lying two miles 
back of the city and commanding a good view 
of the surrounding country and the harbor. In 
order to fully understand our location, I will 
say : The Hawaiian Islands are eight in 
number, all inhabited. Hawaii is the largest 
and most southerly one of the group, being 
about seventy-five miles wide by ninety in 
length. On it are the great volcanoes Mauna 
Kea, 14,000 feet; Mauna Loa, 13,600 feet, 
and Kilauea, 10,000 feet. The latter is active 
and is reached from Hilo, the largest city on 
the island of Hawaii and the second in size 
on the group. As it takes a full week to 
make the round trip from Honolulu to see 
this volcano, we were, on account of lack of 

time,compelled 
to pass it by, 
very much to 
our regret. 

Honolulu, 

^^^^^^^_ the largest city 
on the group 
and the princi- 
pal port of en- 
try, lies on the 
south side of 
Oahu, the sec- 
ond in size and 






:; w 






Honolulu, from Punch Bowl Hill 



20 



the most productive island of the archi- 
pelago. Between the islands of Hawaii and 
Oahu lay the islands of Maui and Lania 
and Molokai. The latter is where the famous 
leper settlement is located. The most 
northerly one of the group is Kauai. On all 
of the islands are many small fertile valleys 
with thousands of acres of tillable land, capa- 
ble of producing many valuable products, 
such as rice, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, 
bananas and pineapples. Very little of this 
land is held by private ownership, most of 
it being crown lands that will revert to the 
Hawaiian gov- 
ernmentassoon 
as the leases of 
varying periods 
expire. 

Honolulu is 
quite a nice city 
of 40,000 in- 
habitants; well 
laid out; many 
good substan- 
tial big build- 
ings; good 
schools ; first- 
class street car 
system. They 
have a splendid 




Statue of Kamehameha the First, and Capitol Building, 
formerly the Royal Palace, Honolulu 



21 



board of health and preserve rigid quaran- 
tine. The Hawaiian Islands, being in mid- 
ocean, on a direct line from North and South 
American ports to the Orient, every known 
disease at some time during the year finds 
its way into this port, hence the great danger 
to Honolulu. The bubonic plague was 
transmitted from India ten years ago and 
became an epidemic. It became necessary to 
burn a portion of the oriental quarter; they 
lost control of the fire and the entire district 
of many blocks was destroyed. The climate 
is tropical, but regulated by trade winds from 
the north; seldom showing over 87° or 

under 6o°. 

The leper island 
of Molokai, which is 
quite large, receives 
but passing notice in 
all guide books and 
the leper settlement 
is never mentioned. 
The leper settle- 
ment, I am told, is 
located in a great 
canon, accessible 
only at the harbor 
entrance, and has a 
population of about 
2,000. They are 
comfortably pro- 
vided for and receive 




Entrance to Tomb of Kalakaua, last King of Hawaii 



22 



good medical attention, but of no avail. 
Science has as yet failed to stop the ravages of 
this fearful disease. Since it is an established 
fact that disease germs can be carried and dis- 
tributed by mosquitoes, the authorities here 
hold that leprosy is spread in the same manner. 
Regardless of their wealth or influence, all 
leper suspects are rounded up by the 
Honolulu board of health from all the 
islands, and are either moved to Molokai or 
given the chance to migrate, which they can 
do to the west, for in Japan they are 
unmolested. 

The islands are now organized under a ter- 
ritorial form of government and have a delegate 
in Congress. Their history is very short, 
dating back to 1778, when discovered by 
Capt. Cook. Royalty developed shortly after, 



Pearl Harbor, site of proposed Naval Station 



23 



beginning with Kamehameha the First, an 
uneducated chief who got pointers from 
sailors who visited the islands after their 
discovery. He developed quickly, conquered 
all the other islands; set up a kingdom, edu- 
cated his heirs abroad, and his successors 
ruled down to Queen Liliuokaulini, who was 
dethroned by the revolution in 1893, which 
was followed by annexation in 1898. Kala- 
kaua, the last king, who died at the Palace 
hotel in San Francisco in 1891, was a highly 
educated man. 

The natives bear no resemblance to Japan- 
ese, but are undoubtedly of Malay extraction 
The best authorities are of the opinion that 
they originally came from Polynesia. The 
Malays built enormous canoes and sails made 
of bark and understood how to navigate by aid 
of the stars, and probably discovered these 
islands and peopled them. The native 

Hawaiians are a 
genial, good- 
hearted people, 
but they are fast 
passing away. It 
is estimated that 
they now num- 
ber less than 
30,000. Japan- 
ese are now 




Umbrella Tree 



24 



numerically the strongest foreign race on 
the islands. 

I find here, as in California, a very decided 
aversion to the Japs, and I believe that the 
opinion of the people who are on the ground, 
on this or any other subject, should always 
have the preference over the opinion of those 
who live at a distance and get information in 
a second-handed manner. Chinese formerly 
outnumbered, but no more can land since 
annexation. Those that were here at the time 
of annexation can remain, but cannot go to the 
mainland. Their children can, however, being 
accorded equal rights with all native-born 
Hawaiians regardless of parentage. Every 
few days a steamer lands a few hundred Japs, 
a bareheaded bunch with wooden sandals on 
their feet, and wearing a kimono that looks 
like a bath robe. On arrival they are hustled 
off to a Jap hotel, where Jap merchants soon 
tog them up in the style of American citizens, 
and, clothed in 
their new glad 

rags, they go ^^ 

sight- seeing in "'WK 

bunches ot a lit ^l 

dozen or so. It 
is easy to see 
that they have 
just landed, for 





Hawaiian Children met on trail to Punch Bowl Hill 



25 



Yankee shoes are difficult for them to navi- 
gate in. Soon as possible they ship for the 
mainland. It is now difficult for those 
whose passports are for the islands to get to 
America, so they go via Puget Sound to 
Canada and get in some way. 

I fancy if some of the advocates of citizen- 
ship for Jap emigrants could see these people 
as they land, they would hesitate about con- 
ferring on them, in five short years, the 
responsibility of assisting native-born citizens 
of the United States in selecting their rulers. 
Unless conditions change, and very quickly, 
too, we will have a full-fledged Japanese colony 
in the Hawaiian Islands, and another negro 
problem on our hands, for they will never 
assimilate, but will always remain a slant- 
eyed Jap, and not of the best type either. 
Ten years from now we will hold up our hands 





Japs at work in Sugarcane Field near Honolulu 



26 



and say, "Why did we do it?" Men on 
the ground, who understand the situation, 
say unless our government discontinues con- 
ceding important advantages, the Japanese 
will not only control our Pacific possessions, 
but the trade of the Pacific as well, which is 
their ultimate purpose. 

Everyone seems satisfied with annexation, 
and the many complications resulting from 
their former unstable government are being 
adjusted. Congress recently made heavy 
appropriations for harbor improvements and 
will establish a strong naval station here. The 
government collects 
about $1,500,000 in 
custom duties from 
the group and, I am 
told, spends about 
$300,000 per annum 
in maintaining the 
island government. 
The balance is all 
clear gain, for the 
Hawaiians have no 
chance to be bene- 
fited by our tariff 
laws, as they export 
no manufactured 
goods but sugar, and 
that was admitted to 





The Pali of Nuuana 



27 



U. S. A. free before annexation. All authori- 
ties claim our government should make this 
the most important naval base on the Pacific. 

iFribag, iHarrh 8 

Found out today that my films, my first 
attempt at photography, are spoiled. Am 
almost tempted to resign my position as official 
photographer. Secured an automobile and 
took a run to "The Pali of Nuuanu," a great 
cliff some six miles east, that overlooks the 
eastern part of the island, the scene of a famous 
battle between rival chiefs. Rainy and cloudy, 
and the view was obscured. Went west to 
Moanalua, a magnificent tropical estate, and 
got a glimpse of a large sugar plantation. 




View from the Summit of the Pali, Honolulu 



28 



^aturbag, iHarrtj 9 

Made another walk to the "Punch Bowl;" 
am getting some pointers on photography — 
always carry my camera, for there are so many 
places of interest I would like pictures of. 
In the afternoon we drove to the summit of 
Mount Tantalus, six miles. Here and there 
along the mountain road, on almost inaccessi- 
ble spots, are many quaint bungalow cottages, 
summer homes of those who delight among 
the beautiful scenery. We invited Miss 
Latham, the young lady who had been at our 
table on the steamer, to accompany us. A 
fine view from 
the summit of 
almost every 
nook and cor- 
ner of the south 
side of the is- 
land, including 
Pearl Harbor, 
the proposed 
naval station. 




Summit Mount Tantalus 



29 



$unftag, fEarrh 10 

Being a clear day, we again drove to the 
Pali, being anxious to see the famous view, 
and were well repaid for making the second 
trip. The great cliff is at the eastern end of 
the Nuuanu valley, which is a mile wide at 
the sea, narrowing away to 200 feet at the 
top, where it drops 1,000 feet perpendicular. 
Beyond the cliff is a fertile plain extending 
to the east coast. It was over this cliff that 
Kamehameha the First drove the king of 
Oahu and his army of 3,000 men to death 
and conquered the island. Put in the after- 
noon visiting the Bishop museum, said to 
contain the most extensive collection of Poly- 
nesian exhibits in the world. Some of the 
grass and bark work is unique, useful and 
wonderful. Mats of handsome design, fish- 
nets and cordage are the most interesting. 




Sugar Mills, Honolulu Plantation Company 



30 



Met many steamer acquaintances, all busy 
sight-seeing. Wound up the day by visiting 
the oriental quarter of Honolulu, the second 
largest district of its kind under the American 
flag, being next in size to San Francisco's 
Chinatown. It covers many blocks filled with 
markets, shops, wholesale and retail stores, 
dealing principally in oriental goods; hotels, 
an occasional theatre and joss house — to all 
intents and purposes a foreign land, with the 
exception that the authorities make them 
live up to the sanitary laws and the streets 
and alleys are of regulation width. 

The Chinese were formerly in control, but 
ate now giving 
way to the Jap- 
anese, whose 
numbers are in- 



creasing, 



w 



hile 



the number of 
Chinese is not. 
Many of the 
Hawaiian 
Chinese are fine 
looking. A 
large number 
have discarded 
the historic cue, 
adopted the 




Chinatown, Honolulu — Chinese Band playing on the Balcony 



31 



garb of the European, educated their children 
and live quite decently. The Chinese boys 
working at the Albert Young Hotel wore 
white flannel and duck suits cut in the latest 
style. Their accent is good, they are very 
obliging and polite and exceptionally neat in 
appearance, and are about as good waiters 
as we ever saw. For several days we thought 
them native Hawaiian boys. 

We spent a few minutes in the government 
building, formerly the king's palace, built by 
the last members of the royal family. Saw 
some oil paintings by the best French masters, 
of all the various royal rulers. 

ifflmtfcag, ilarrlj 1 1 

Engaged an automobile and rode some 
sixteen miles through the sugar plantation dis- 
trict, By having an automoblile we were able 
to see every phase of sugar plantation farm- 
ing, from preparing the ground to making 
the sugar. We had letters of introduction, 




Plantation Railroad — Cars loaded with Sugarcane bound for Mill 



32 



and were shown through the big sugar 
mill and refinery of the Honolulu Sugar 
Plantation Co., a million dollar plant. Saw 
the cane unloaded, ground to pulp, the juice 
extracted, boiled, reduced to sugar and sacked 
ready for shipment to San Francisco to be 
refined. Their own refinery will soon be 
completed, and they will then be the only 
company in the world that will raise sugar- 
cane and refine the product. They have 
9,000 acres under cultivation, plowed by 
steam plows. The cane is cultivated and cut 
by Japs and Chinese (some women work in 
the fields), who are paid $18 to $22 per month. 
Chinese are 
preferred on 
plantations, for 
they work with- 
out being 
watched. Japs 
make better 
mill hands, for 
they are 
stronger. They 
also make bet- 
ter teamsters, 
for a mule and 
a Jap get along 
very well to- 
gether. The 
plantation 





Rice Field near Honolulu 



33 



mules come from Oregon and California; 
cost $500 to $600 a pair. Every plantation 
has its own little railroad pulling the cane 
from the field to the mills. The sugar bags 
come from India, cost six cents each, and 
when sewed full of sugar weigh about 125 
pounds. Much of the mill machinery is 
made in Honolulu. The laborers live in 
small villages, and are transported to and 
from their work on the plantation railroads. 

The sugar is worth about $3.60 per hun- 
dredweight. Some records of sixty tons to 
the acre have been made, but the average is 
very much less. Irrigation is usually neces- 
sary, and much care is required to handle a 
crop, and the profits are not large. Planters 
claim to have made no money for two years. 
I note that nearly all sugar plantations are 
incorporated and the stock speculated in. 




U. S. Army Transport "Sherman" at Honolulu 



34 



I also note a middleman in the game between 
the plantation and the market. These corns 
or brokers, as they are called, control the 
docks, have a pull with the steamship com- 
panies, buy all the plantation machinery and 
supplies, sell and ship all their products. 
Strange coincidence, but in many cases the 
heads of the sugar plantations are also inter- 
ested in these brokerage and commission 
firms, which may account for the small 
plantation stockholder not getting satisfactory 
dividends. 

<5uratouj, iHarrlj 12 

Visited "Diamond Head," an extinct vol- 
cano on southeastern point of the island ; 
clear day and had a fine view of Molokai 
and Lanai, the two islands laying ninety miles 
to the south; passed the Moani Hotel on 
Waikiki Beach, five miles out. This beach 




U. S. Army Transport "Thomas" at Honolulu 



35 



is famous for surf bathing, and the hotel is 
very popular, but is located near the rice 
fields and the mosquitoes are at times very 
hostile. Returned and saw the army trans- 
port " Sherman" sail for San Francisco, 
and secured some good snap-shots of the 
army transport "Thomas" just in from San 
Francisco, bound for Manila with the Tenth 
Cavalry (colored) on board. Thev had a 
fine band with them, and we enjoyed listen- 
ing to some good music on the docks while 
guard-mount was going on. 

Efrftursfoaij, ittarrh 13 

News came that the "Mongolia" left San 
Francisco one day late; will not reach Hono- 
lulu until Friday, so we engaged the auto- 
mobile and, with Miss Latham, went to visit 
the pineapple plantations. The roads were 
fine, and a run of twenty-five miles brought 
us to the Tropic Fruit Company plantation 

at Wahiawa, the lar- 
gest on the island. 
They have about 
4,000 acres under 
cultivation. The in- 
dustry is new, but 
no doubt has a fine 
future. The soil, I am 
told, is well adapted 
for the fruit, no irri- 
gation is necessary 



**j§j*i** 




Pineapple Plantation, Island Oahu 






and much suitable land is available. This 
company is but three years old, but has gone 
into the business in a scientific way and 
expects to double the acreage in two years. 
They have been shipping the whole pine- 
apples to the mainland, San Francisco, Port- 
land and Seattle, but have put in modern 
machinery and are preparing to pack their 
product right here. 

The fruit is larger than Cuban or Florida 
fruit and better flavored ; they claim they 
are even better than Singapore, the best 
pineapples in the world. About 4,000 apples 
are produced to an acre. In packing for 
select market, they are sliced by machinery 
into long strips, an inch square, and packed 
in glass jars. This, I am told, is the proper 
way to cut a pineapple ; it cuts with the 
grain. The glass jars used come all the way 
from Wheeling, W. Va.; the sugar used is 
all refined; raised on the Island, shipped to 
San Francisco, refined and shipped back. 

On our way back to Honolulu we passed 
Wahiawa, a dam built by one of the sugar 
plantations for storing water for irrigation 
purposes. The island of Oahu, though only 
650 miles square, is very fertile and has 
thousands of acres of land lying idle, which 
in time will be producing a class of products 
for which there is usually a good market. 



37 



We passed several groups of Jap children 
on their wav home from school and attempted 
to photograph them, but as soon as they 
saw the kodak they all ran away. We reached 
Honolulu safely at 5 p. m., having had a 
thoroughly enjoyable day. 

(Tlutrsfcatj, iHarrh 14 

Only twenty -four hours more on this 
beautiful spot. We are reluctant to leave, 
and did our packing with much regret. 
Spent the day visiting Kapiolani Park, in 
which is a remarkable collection of tropical 
growths; also one of the most interesting 
aquariums in the world, a collection of fish 
unique in form and colorings. 

iFrttmg, ittarrh 15 

From the roof garden of our hotel, with my 
field glasses, at an early hour I saw the S. S. 
"Mongolia" enter the harbor, and the S. S. 
"Ohio," with an excursion party from Los An- 
geles, orily two miles further out. Sent our 
trunks properly labeled "Stateroom 89" to the 
wharf and proceeded to take our last look at 
Honolulu. A native feast, "The Luan," was 
being held in a beautiful park for the benefit 
of a maternity home. Many native dishes, in- 
cluding "poia", were served in ancient native 
style, minus knives and forks, everyone using 
their fingers. I was willing, but Mrs. P. 



ss 



preferred dining at another table in the man- 
ner we were accustomed to. The home was 
founded by a sister of Liliuokaulani, the last 
Hawaiian queen. She has always maintained 
a great interest in its success, and she, with 
other members of the royal family, was 
present. They were seated under an open 
canopy, where she sold her autograph and 
permitted snap-shots to be taken for one dol- 
lar each for the home fund. I secured two 
good kodak pictures of the party. She is 
a swarthy-featured, kind-faced old lady of 
probably sixty, dressed in a loose black silk 
gown, worn so much by the people in this 
warm climate. Wore a beautiful hat and a 
little plain gold jewelry. Our government gave 
her a million or so when she surrendered 




<4 Luan" (Feast) at Honolulu — Queen Liliuokaulani in center 



39 



her royal rights. I am told she is very 
charitable and provides for numerous relatives 
who lost their incomes through annexation, 
but she is also quite shrewd and is trying to 
get congress to recognize her claim to crown 
lands worth twenty millions or so, which the 
government claims were included in the 
transfer of the crown rights and are now the 
property of the Hawaiian government. 

We listened to a native band of fine musi- 
cians that recentlv visited the United States, 
a splendid orchestra, including many native 
instruments, accompanied by good vocalists. 
The native music is soft and mellow, with 
little effort at high notes. After taking snap- 
shots at these closing scenes of our visit, we 
went aboard at 4 p. m., watched the busy 
scene of loading freight, supplies and baggage, 
and when the last passenger was aboard and 
the gang-plank swung, and the big ship began 
to move, we went on the upper deck and 
saw the harbor of Honolulu grow indistinct 
and the island of Oahu, as it seemed to slip 
into the sea. 

The memories of the magnificent land- 
scapes, the beautiful foliage, the soft air and 
the genial people of the Hawaiian Islands will 
never be forgotten. Not one beggar asking 
for alms did we see, not one harsh word 
spoken by the natives did we hear during the 



40 



ten davs we spent among our new-found 
possessions in the far-away Pacific, and they 
certainly were "found," for not an American 
gun was fired or a drop of American blood 
was shed when this group of fertile islands 
became a part of our domain. 

i>aturfcaij, iUarrh 1 6 

Our course from Honolulu was set in a 
N. W. direction. The day was very pleasant, 
although quite a stiff breeze was blowing 
from the port side. The "Mongolia" is one 
of the two largest ships owned by the Pacific 
Mail Company; built in 1904, at Camden, 
N. J., by the New York Ship Building Co. 
She is 28,000 tons, or nearly three times the 
size of the "China;" modern and up-to-date 
as compared to big Atlantic liners; carried a 
cargo of 15,000 tons; 11,000 tons of raw 




View from Lifeboat Deck over Forward Deck — S. S. "Mongolia" leaving Honolulu 



41 



cotton for Kobe, Japan; machinery, leather 
and manufacturing goods formed the balance. 
On account of her size and heavy load she 
had very little motion and scarcely any vibra- 
tion. Capt. Hathaway in command, formerly 
on Ward Line, New York to Panama; on 
his second voyage to Hong Kong. Nearly 
all officers are also new on this ship. The 
ship was run on a reef on Midway Island a 
few weeks ago and came near being lost. 
Officers in charge at that time were suspended 
and changed to other ships. Damage has 
been temporarily repaired and they expect to 
put her in dry dock in July, and spend 
$300,000 on her. Her companion ship, the 
"Manchuria," was wrecked near Honolulu 
recently, but finally got to San Francisco, 
where $600,000 is now being spent on her. 




Playing Shuffleboard at Sea — S. S. "Mongolia' 



42 



We have a full passenger list, 225 first 
cabin, 400 in oriental steerage; every state- 
room rilled. Many passengers who boarded 
at Honolulu, who had not secured accommo- 
dations in advance, were subjected to much 
discomfort. Husbands in one, wives in 
another stateroom, three and four strangers 
often together. For our part, I made every 
provision in advance for our entire trip from 
San Francisco to Japan and return. We are 
in No. 89, with upper and lower berth; and 
a large lounge on which I preferred to sleep 
rather than in the upper berth. 

At noon were 240 miles from Honolulu. 

•mtfcag, ilarrlj 1 7 

We have on board about twenty ministers 
and twenty missionaries, with their families, 
among them Dr. David Spencer, of the 
Methodist Publishing Company, Tokio, and 
Bishop Cranston, of the M. E. Church. They 
are bound for Shanghai to attend a centen- 
nial celebration of the opening of the missions 
in the orient. Services were held in the 
oriental quarter on the aft deck at 10 a. m. 
Dr. Twang, in charge of Presbyterian mis- 
sions, Honolulu, spoke in Chinese, and Dr. 
Spencer in Japanese. 

The orientals are permitted to gamble on 
the ship by the company, otherwise they 
would not patronize the line. Dice, fantan, 
and roulette are their favorite pastime; four 
roulette wheels are manipulated on this ship. 



43 



Our cabin bov, a youth about forty years of 
age, broke one bank, capital $250. The gam- 
blers suspended operations thirty minutes 
while the missionaries talked to them. The 
"Ah Lungs," "Ah Lees" and quite a number 
of the "Ah Sin" families were present. 

Services were held in forward social hall 
at 1 1 a. m. A good piano and many splendid 
voices, a short talk and never-to-be-forgotten 
collection ended a novel mid-ocean scene. A 
lecture at 8:30 p. m. by Rev. Wilber F. 
Crofts, Washington, D. C, on the effort 
being made by the leading nations to suppress 
the opium traffic, was well attended and in- 
teresting, al- 
though many 
of his state- 
ments were 
contradicted at 
a later date by 
Secretary 
Wo os t e r , o 1 
the Philippine 
commission. 

Made 367 
miles bv noon. 




Lining up Steerage Passengers for Doctor's Inspection 



44 



fimt&ag, ifflarrlj 1 8 

Smooth sea, air much cooler as we pass 
away from the tropics to the northwest. 
Duck trousers and light clothing, somewhat 
in evidence at Honolulu, have disappeared. 
Tomorrow we pass the 180th meridian and 
drop a day. In other words, we pass from 
Monday to Wednesday. Would have been 
tough on the missionaries had it happened 
on Sunday. 

Made 360 miles by noon. 

Gtoafcag, fflarrlj 19 

Did not happen here. 

H^nrabag, iEarrlj 20 

Crossed the meridian and never felt it; 
dropped a day and never missed it. Some 
people would like to have the 180th meridian 
around handy so they could drop a day every 
once in a while. Missionaries hold daily 
meetings in the dining cabin, where some- 
one lectures on a subject of interest to all. 
Some well-educated and well-traveled men 
among them, and many of the subjects are 
well handled and worth listening to. Some 
objections to the meetings were made by 
other passengers. The purser notified them 
they would have to be discontinued, but a 
compromise was effected, dropping out the 



45 



notices, singing, praying, and moving from 
the social hall to the dining cabin, so every- 
body is happy. It all goes to show that 
people of radically different ideas of life can 
live together and occupy a very small space. 

Graphophones are now playing ragtime 
music. Ah Sin is keeping his countrymen 
from dying with melancholy with his roulette 
wheel, and while the almond-eyed celestials 
are rolling the little ball on the wheel of 
chance on the aft deck, the spiritual advisers 
of the world's great nations are in the dining 
cabin listening to a lecture on how Christian 
England made war on heathen China be- 
cause they objected to opening their markets 
to England's opium traffic. 

A busy day. Made 363 miles by noon. 
The big ship stopped at midnight, the officers 
appeared in uniform, the Episcopal service 
was read according to the rules of the Com- 
pany, and a Japanese passenger who had died 
during the day was buried at sea. 





Fortifications, Yokohama Harbor 



46 



SUjursdaij, iEarrij 2 1 

Sun crossed the equator today, a very 
pleasant day, no disturbance in sight up to 
noon; made 353 miles by noon. At 2 p. m. 
the barometer began falling rapidly and every 
preparation was made for the equinoctial 
storm, seldom escaped in these waters; all the 
awnings taken down, chained up all the loose 
material on decks, gangways lashed securely. 

In the evening listened to a splendid 
address by Secretary Wooster, of the Philip- 
pine Commission. He has been there many 
years and has had much experience on the 
islands. He sharply criticized the missionary 
work as now being prosecuted in the islands, 
made a strong plea for their co-operation on 
more sane lines, emphatically contradicted the 
statements made by Dr. Croft Sunday evening 
in reference to the condition of the opium 
traffic on the islands. His address was 
received in a very frigid manner by the 
missionaries who had invited him to speak. 
None of them asked a question, only two 
thanked him when he concluded. Bishop 
Cranston, who, by the way, impressed. me as 
a very narrow-minded man, walked right past 
him and snubbed him, merely, I presume, 
because he did not agree with him. Dozens 
of other passengers, however, did show their 
appreciation of his address. 



41 



3Frt&ag, ifflarrh 22 

Blowing all right this morning, strong head 
wind, can't walk the upper deck. Saw big 
whale 10 a. m. on port side. Made 340 miles 
bv noon. Began to rain at 1 p. m., a heavy 
swell and big seas breaking over ship's bow, 
shipping tons of water; forward hatches over 
Oriental steerage closed. Sailors have don- 
ned their oil clothing, the number of watchmen 
doubled, the captain is on the bridge and we 
are having our second storm at sea. The big 
steel ship is making only eleven knots an 
hour, but going right on her course; very 
few on deck, but quite a number watched the 
big waves from the front portholes of dining 
salon. 

Quite considerable comment on Secretary 
Wooster's statements of last evening. Many 
government employes and army officers agree 
with him. Missionaries are saying as a 
government official he exceeded his rights 
in his statements, and talk of having him 
reported to Washington authorities. Merely 
another case of where a man on the ground 
understands local conditions better than those 
who live 10,000 miles away. 



4S 



£>aturfca£, ilard) 23 

Had a stormy night, but passed through 
safely; quite cold again; unpacked our fur 
coats. One would think there was not much 
commerce on the Pacific. We have not seen 
a ship since leaving Honolulu, and only one 
since the first day out from San Francisco. 
Owing to the storm made only 300 miles by 
noon. The missionaries are herding by 
themselves. They seem to think the other 
sinners think too much of Secretary Wooster. 

^utthag, ilarrfj 24 

Rained all night, morning dawned damp 
and foggy. First officer says we have passed 
through the edge of a typhoon. A large 
species of gulls, known as albatross, some 
fully five feet from tip to tip, are now follow- 
ing us. Our second Sunday on the ship and 
our third at sea. Sermon by Bishop Cranston. 

Too bad these various denominations can't 
unite in their missionary work and have one 
catechism, one faith and preach one gospel. 
They don't seem to appreciate the value of 
concentration. Every little creed known in 
the Christian world sends missionaries to the 
Orient, each with a different kind of a time- 
card for the route to eternal happiness, differ- 
ent faith, different song books, each with a 
different method of persuading the orientals 



49 



to forsake the faith of their ancestors ; some 
stand when they pray, some kneel, some read 
their prayers, and the result is they get about 
ten cents on the dollar for the money they 
spend. A skillful business man like Carnegie 
or Rockefeller could take this disorganized 
missionary business in hand and for the same 
cost would accomplish more in five years 
than they now do in fifty. Made 315 miles 
by noon. 

iHmtfcag, Marcl) 25 

Smooth sea ; last day before we land ; 
passengers packing; sailors rigging block and 
tackle preparing to unload ; letters are being 
written to be mailed on the "Korea," which 
sails for San Francisco soon after our arrival. 

Made 36$ miles; only 316 to go to end 
our 5,500 mile voyage across the Pacific. 

©uratmg, ilarrif 26 

Sighted land at 9:30 a. m. Until within 
fifty miles of the shores of Japan have not 
seen a sail of any kind since leaving Hono- 
lulu, a distance of 3,400 miles, and only one 
since leaving the coasts of California, a dis- 
tance of 5,500 miles. Modern shipbuilding 
has brought these two lands within seventeen 
days' journey by sea, during which time we 
have been surrounded by every comfort of a 
modern hotel, with ladies and gentlemen 



so 



often appearing in full evening dress at the 
entertainments in the ship's social hall. We 
sometimes forget we are at sea. 

At 10:30 a. m. we sighted the wreck of 
the ill-fated "Dakota" of the Great Northern 
Steamship Co. line, bound for Yokohama. 
She went ashore Sunday, March 3, at 4:30 
p. m. The captain was four miles out of 
the regular course; was evidently trying to 
clip a few moments from the time record 
and went too close to the cape in rounding 
the Kazusa Peninsula and went ashore, and 
lost the big ship on a reef in Uraga Channel 
at the entrance to Yeddo Bay. Passengers 
and crew and some mail were saved, but very 
little cabin baggage. The Chinese sailors, I 
am told, lost no time getting into the life- 
boats, and notwithstanding the fact that the 
sea was calm, broad daylight, and she laid on 
the reef about half-a-mile from shore, very 




Wreck of Great Northern S. S. "Dakota," Shirahoma Beach, 40 miles from Yokohama 



51 



little discipline was maintained. No doubt 
much more baggage could have been saved. 
No watch was placed on the wreck and Jap 
fishermen began looting the unfortunate 
ship that night. We are passing the wreck 
twenty-three days after the accident, four 
miles to our starboard, half of her hull above 
water, but gradually pounding to pieces. 

We passed the fortifications at the entrance 
of Yeddo Bay at i p. m. The western shore 
fairly bristles with modern fortifications, the 
east being protected by shallow water. Inside 
the entrance to the bay, guarding the chan- 
nel, are three large artificial islands, mounted 
with disappearing guns, making it practicallv 
an impossibilitv for any hostile fleet to reach 
Yokohama or the capital city, Tokio, eighteen 
miles farther up the bay. 

Yokohama harbor, in Yeddo Bay, is very 
beautiful, and said to be the best in the orient. 




Pacific Mail S. S. "Mongolia" — Yokohama Harbor 



A low range of broken hills lay back of the 
city. The main mountain range, with the 
famous snow peak, Fujyama, form a beautiful 
picture; one that cannot well be exaggerated. 
Docking facilities are limited, and we anchored 
inside the breakwater, as do all very large 
ships, and went ashore in lighters ; passed 
customs inspection and had our first jinrikisha 
ride to the Grand Hotel. They are a light, 
two-wheeled vehicle pulled by men in the 
place of horses. 

The rikisha men become very muscular; 
they trot high like an ostrich or run very 
swiftly, crowded streets having no terrors for 
them. They give a sharp warning cry that 
they are coming, and they seem to always 
find an opening 
in any crowd. 
Thousands, yes, 
tens of thou- 
sands,of rikishas 
are used in Japan. 
Like everything 
else in a strange 
country, one has 
to get used to it, 
but I could not, 
while in Japan, 
get used to hav- 
ing a man do the 
work of a horse. 
Horses are a real 



h~ 




View from Grand Hotel — Yokohama 



53 



luxury ; an occasional cab or carnage is seen 
in large cities ; once in a while a dray pulled 
by one horse. The driver doesn't "drive," 
he leads, and the meek manner in which he 
pulls his horse around in the narrow streets 
is quite a revelation to a man from Chicago, 
where teamsters don't give the road for street 
cars, and where the sight of a union button 
makes even the fire department halt. 

We found the Grand Hotel cosy, comfort- 
able and well managed ; native servants well 
trained and very polite. No matter how small 
the remembrance given them you always 
receive a gracious bow. The contrast between 
their actions and those of the servants met in 
Europe makes the traveler wonder if the early 
training so universal among the heathens 
would not be an improvement if adopted in 
sunny Italy, France, England and our own 
U. S. A. 

Wrhnrsbag, iHarrli 2 7 

Dawned rainy and dark, making sight-seeing 
an impossibility, so we contented ourselves 
by visiting the shops at Yokohama. As 
this port is visited more times and longer 
than any other by travelers, it presents the 
best assortment of shops of any city in Japan. 




Jap Teamster — Yokohama 



54 



One can buy here the products made in every 
city in the empire at somewhat higher prices 
than asked right where they are made, but 
the assortment is here. There is little effort 
made to show their beautiful goods in a 
modern way- An occasional store makes an 
attempt at show-windows and uses a few 
show-cases, but the majority of the shops 
merely pile their goods up neatly; but all 
keep their places very clean, the fronts of the 
stores in many cases being merely a mass of 
light screens that are removed during the day, 
leaving the entire front open. 

There are very few sidewalks, as horses are 
used but little. (Japs say horses eat too much.) 
Everyone travels in the street; the natives 
nearly all wear wooden clogs, some high up, 
some low down on the ground, or sandals 
and short cotton pants and kimonos, and 
usually go bareheaded. They are all short in 




Mrs. E. V. Price, in Jinrikisha — Kyoto 



SS 



stature, very muscular and quick as cats, and 
obey orders from their superiors without 
any back talk. No sooner is an order given 
by a banker, merchant or any other employer, 
than it is put into execution at once; merely 
a profound bow and the work is started. 
No doubt but Japan's splendid army is due 
to these characteristics. 

A day among the shops gave us valuable 
information of use to us later on. We found 
English-speaking people everywhere in 
Yokohama, and as we will do our real sight- 
seeing here on our return, we employed no 
guide for the day. Many of our ship's 
passengers went to Tokio for the day, by rail 
to Kobe on the inland sea, stopping a day at 
Kyoto and joining the ship again at Kobe, 
going on to Hong Kong, Shang-Hai and on 
around the world in very much the same 
manner, buying nicknacks here and there and 




The Writer, in Jinrikisha - Kyoto 



56 



gaining little information. Owing to the bad 
weather little progress was made in unloading 
the cargo from the "Mongolia" and we did 
not get awav Wednesday as expected. 

Otlmrsfoay, iHarrh 28 

At 3:30 p. m. we steamed out from the 
friendly protection of the breakwater down 
Yeddo Bay to the harbor entrance, past the 
powerful forts already mentioned, passed 
out the channel into the ocean again, and 
steamed in a S. W. direction for Kobe, 350 
miles away. About sunset we passed between 
the mainland and Uries Island, on which is 
located the active volcano of Oshinea, one of 
the greatest safety chimneys of the western 
Pacific. It presented a beautiful sight some 
ten miles away. We rounded the cape at 




English Gentleman's Home, Yokohama — fashioned after Shinto Temple at Naru 



57 



midnight and changed our course to N. W. 
and entered the eastern part of Japan's famous 
inland sea, a somewhat dangerous route. As 
no pilot was taken on until Kobe was reached, 
Capt. Hathaway remained on the bridge all 
night. 

3FrU>ajj, iflarrh 29 

We reached Kobe at 3 p. m., and an- 
chored well outside, on account of the size 
of the ship and the load she was carrying. 

On our way up to Kobe, countless num- 
bers of "sampans," Japanese fishing vessels, 
were passed. Thev are small boats with very 
little keel; one, sometimes two, small masts, 
on which a little square sail is used in favor- 
able wind. When there is no wind, they 
handle them with one or two oars from the 
stern, by sculling. They are daring sailors 
and venture out of sight of land in these frail 
junks. Sea fish, fresh and cured in various 
ways, are a great food product in Japan, and 
the quality in these waters is of the best. 

On our way to the wharf in launches, 
we passed two English, one Italian and two 
American warships that laid at anchor in the 
harbor at Kobe. It seemed good to us to 
see the stars and stripes as they floated from 
the big white cruisers "West Virginia" and 
"Pennsvlvania," second to none thev sav. 



58 



We found the Oriental Hotel at Kobe 
very good ; weather cold and rainy, tops of 
the mountains back of the city, covered with 
snow, but a good grate fire made us com- 
fortable. Here we found soap from Swift 
& Co., ham and bacon from Armour's, 
Chicago; pickles from Heinz & Co., Pitts- 
burg; flour from Seattle. Hotel rates, $4.00 
a day in American gold ; never see any 
Japanese gold; their money is on the decimal 
system, copied after our own. Copper coin 
called "rin"; silver coin called "sen" and 
paper money called "yen"; copper, one and 
two rin pieces; silver, ten, twenty, fifty sen; 
paper, one, five, ten, fifty, one hundred yen 
denominations. One hundred sen makes one 
yen or fifty cents of our money. Exchange 
at banks usually places yen value at forty- 
nine and one-half cents. 




Oriental Hotel — Kobe 



59 



g>atur?mif, ifflarrh 30 

Mountains and hills back of Kobe covered 
with snow ; our heavy winter clothing very 
comfortable; climate about like Memphis or 
St. Louis, only a penetrating dampness. 
Employed a courier at 9:45 a. m., took train 
on imperial government railroad for Osaka, 
thirtv miles away. Government now owns 
about all the railroads from Kobe east, that 
includes central and eastern Japan ; double 
track to Tokio, 400 miles. It is claimed by 
some newspapers that the service is much 
poorer since they passed into the hands of 
the government. There are now about 3,500 
miles of railroad in the empire. The San 
Yo railroad from Kobe west is yet in the 
hands of a private corporation. They are 
all forty-two inch gauge and conducted very 
much on the English system, both in method 
and equipment, a fact, I am told, they very 
much regret. 

English influence in this case steered 
them wrong. Little freight cars, carrying 
15,000 to 18,000 pounds of freight; the 
passenger coaches are not compartments, but 
have the seats arranged on the sides ; cars 
hold about twenty-four passengers. They 
have first, second and third-class, costing 
three sen, two sen and one sen per mile, with 
a government tax on all first-class, according 
to distance traveled. This seems cheap, but 



60 



it is not, for they crowd the third-class pas- 
sengers in like cattle. Tickets are handled 
after the English system, punched at the 
gate as you enter the cars and taken up at 
the gate as you leave the cars at your jour- 
ney's end. No train conductors in sight en- 
route, only a guard who sits in the car. The 
American system of checking baggage is used, 
however. Engines are nearly all built in 
Scotland, but they are now purchasing 
American locomotives. On this, their best 
railroad built in recent years, when they had 
the opportunity to copy the world's very 
best, they have equipment and service that 
would not be tolerated even in Arkansas. 

Our courier, " Manatto", is a bright, 
chubby-faced fellow, a hustler who knows 
Japan, but speaks English very imperfectly. 
Educated at Osaka college, his English educa- 
tion being by Japan- 
ese teachers. English 
tutors are now dis- 
pensed with in all 
schools and colleges. 
Japanese use no in- 
flection or accent in 
their language, and 
speak English in the 
same monotone, so 
you can imagine how 




Mr. K. Manatto, our Courier — Tea Garden, Kyoto 



61 



English taught by a Jap sounds. It is like 
eating your food without salt. Their school 
system is copied after our own, and English 
taught after certain grades are reached, but 
they speak the English language about as 
intelligently as many of the Britishers we 
meet, who use an accent and inflection un- 
known in the U. S. A., and whose descriptive 
verbs sound like an extravaganza. 

On our way to Osaka we passed through 
a fertile farming country irrigated by moun- 
tain streams, the largest being Yodoyawa 
river, the outlet for Lake Biwa, Japan's lar- 
gest inland lake. The farmers live in little 
villages, in fairly good cottages. Sometimes 
straw, sometimes tile roofs ; the cottages are 
usually made of very thin lumber ; screen 
sliding doors and windows with paper in place 
of glass, they can be made into summer cot- 
tages quickly; they have no furniture except 
matting. 

The farms vary in size from an ordinary 
garden patch to a few acres, seldom over five 
acres. In some localities large tracts are 
owned by landlords who lease to tenants. 
They do not sow the grain, but plant it, and 
hoe and cultivate it like we cultivate gardens 
at home. There are few roads in the country, 
the land being too valuable, and no fences ; a 
main road running through the country; any- 
thing aside from it is merely a narrow way 



62 



where hand carts or an ox cart can pass. No 
horses are used in southern Japan by the 
farmers; every kind of work, including pull- 
ing the carts, is done by men and women, 
with an occasional ox. 

They raise millet, barley, rice. (They sell 
their rice as a rule, for it is of the best quality, 
and buy Chinese rice, which is not so good 
and cheaper in price.) Thus, a vessel bound 
from Hong Kong to America will frequently 
unload and load rice at Yokohama. The 
earning capacity of these farmers is very, 
very small, but they have been getting better 
prices in recent 
years. After 
seeing the little 
patches of 
ground called 
farms in Japan, 
and seeing how 
very carefully 
everyinchmust 
be utilized, I 
feel safe in say- 
ing our people 
waste more 
than it would 
take to keep the 
whole empire 
of Japan, for 
4 5 ,000,000 




Street Scene, Easter Sunday — Kobe 



63 



people live in an area of 175,000 square miles, 
about the size of the state of California, on land 
worked for ages, seventy-five percent, of which 
is mountainous and cannot be cultivated. 

If Roosevelt was Mikado of Japan he 
would never have to lecture his people about 
"race suicide;" every woman seems to have at 
least one baby (a large percentage of them 
have eczema), and for fear there may be some 
doubt about it, carries it right along with her 
on her back, not as comfortably as the 
American Indian squaw carries her offspring. 
The future army and navy of Japan is carried 
seated on a belt astride the mother's back, 
sometimes in a shawl, sometimes in a kimono, 
but alwavs on the back. 

Osaka is the second largest citv in Japan, 
has 1,000,000 population with only 300 
Europeans. Only three larger cities in the 
United States. It is the great manufacturing 
and wholesale city of the empire. Many 
large factories have been organized and put 
in operation here within recent years; brew- 
eries, watch factory, brass foundries, several 
large cotton mills. Japan now makes nearly 
all her cotton goods at home and is exporting 
to China and Korea. Thev buy some raw 
cotton from America (about thirty per cent.), 
but principally from Bombay; manufacture 
it with their cheap labor; their expert opera- 
tives in cotton mills receive from thirty to 



64 



fifty cents of our money per day of twelve 
to fourteen hours. Eight hours don't make 
a day, neither do six days make a week in 
Japan. They simply toil unceasingly. They 
can buy our raw cotton, pay freight and quote 
a lower price on the finished product than 
American mills running in sight of the cot- 
ton fields. But there is beyond Japan a land 
where I am told even greater poverty exists, 
in China. This is quite evident, for Japan 
has a high protective tariff on all competing 
articles coming from China. 

In some of the large cities where there is 
a large European population, the Christian 
Sunday is partially observed. Banks, some 
business houses and some government 
buildings are closed. There are no cabs or 
carriages in Osaka, no street cars in the city, 
but a line connecting Kobe and Osaka. A 
bus-auto, introduced by an enterprising Jap, 
runs on some extra wide streets, but every- 
thing and everybody has to get off the street 
when it comes along. Ten thousand licensed 
rikisha men in the city, which is sixteen 
miles square, covered by one and two-story 
buildings. 

Jap men and women, wrapped in kimonos, 
bareheaded, with wooden clogs on their feet, 
men pulling heavy carts, push and crowd 
through the narrow streets, as a rule not as 
wide as a Chicago alley; always moving 



65 



swiftly, usually running. Shops of all kinds, 
hundreds, yes, thousands of them, line the 
streets for miles ; no sidewalks, no show 
windows, screen doors which, when opened, 
expose the whole store front. 

The wholesale district was very interesting 
to me, almost all being specialists in their 
lines; none large, but what they lack in size 
they make up in numbers. Dealers in 
cotton, silk goods, Jap furniture, Jap shoes 
and various manufactured goods. The 
floors extend right to the street; the merchant, 
bookkeeper, shipping clerk and other 
employes squat on mats at the door. The 
cases are packed and prepared for shipping 
(usually strapped) out in the narrow street. 
Everything very primitive and such a con- 
trast to the elegant offices and storerooms 
occupied by wholesale firms in our country. 




Human Horse and his Load 



66 



The best artists on decorated Satsuma 
ware are in Osaka and it, as well as other 
high and low grade decorated ware, is ex- 
ported largely. No one can fully appreciate 
the artistic genius necessary to produce the best 
"quality of decorated Satsuma ware until they 
see it made and watch the workmen with the 
magnifying glass in the left hand and doing 
the work by looking through the glass, which 
magnifies the work being done by the right 
hand. Squatted on mats, they toil long hours 
at work that requires skill, patience, and a 
steady nerve, the natural talent of an artist, 
and many years' experience to master, and 
when perfectly skilled can earn two yen 
($1.00) per day, or about one-quarter the 
pay earned in Chicago by members of the 
Amalgamated Brotherhood of Whitewashers. 

The national mint located here was closed 
on account of it being Saturday. We 
secured permits and visited the Castle of 
Hideyoshi, the home of one of the ancient 
rulers. After a tedious wait, until the guard 
went to headquarters with our permits, we 
were escorted around by another guard. Aside 
from the view and some tremendous stone 
forming the wall, brought four hundred 
miles from Nagasaki, there is nothing of 
special interest around the place. After 
lunch visited our first temple, the Shinto 
Temple, Tenno-ji and its huge bell, said to 



67 



be the largest in the world. Several lepers, 
hideous looking objects, waiting at the gates, 
followed us until our courier tossed them a 
few coppers. Many little bells hung around 
the side of the Temple; a passer-by would 
ring a bell, clap his hands to attract the atten- 
tion of the gods, throw a few coppers into the 
"pot," mutter a few words and move on. 

Osaka is not much beloved by the tourists; 
few visit and none remain long. Our 
caravan, consisting of our courier in front; 
Miss Latham, whom we had invited to 
spend the day with us while the "Mongolia" 

was unloading 
at Kobe, and 
who wore a long 
feather in her 
hat; Mrs. Price, 
with her red hat 
and coat, and 
myself, on ac- 
count of my 
size, created 
quite a sensa- 
tion as our riki- 
sha men raced 
through the 
dense crowd on 
"Dotom-bori," 
Theatre street, 
and when we 




Japanese Leper 



68 



alighted once to look at some sights on a 
side street the crowd followed us, staring, 
laughing, pointing at our strange appearance, 
and when we turned to return to our 
rikishas the crowd right-about-faced and 
marched back with us several blocks, and it 
was with difficulty we regained our seats. 
We returned to Kobe, wondering if every 
day in Japan would be as interesting. 

After dinner we boarded a launch and 
went out to the "Mongolia," and saw Miss 
Latham safe aboard at 9:30 p. m. She had 
been an agreeable companion and we were 
sorry to part with her. 




Ringing Bell to attract Attention of the Gods — Shinto Temple, Osaka 



69 



>mt&aij, ittarrl) 3 1 

Easter Sunday in Japan, 1907, presents 
quite a different appearance from Easter Sun- 
day spent in Madeira Islands in 1906, where 
almost everyone is a Catholic. We visited the 
big bronze "Diabutsa," Great Buddha, in the 
western part of Kobe. Near here we saw the 
saddest spectacle of our journey in Japan, a 
blind Japanese coolie pulling a loaded cart 
heavy enough for a horse, and to do his 
work he was led by his wife, who carried a 
small baby on her back. In our travels on 
two continents we never saw any scene that 
touched our hearts like this. Visited a few 
shops and left on the fast express at 4:30 
p. m. for Kyoto, forty-five miles in one and 
a half hours. Arrived in a cold rainstorm, 




Unloading Cotton from S. S. "Mongolia" — Kobe 



10 



but succeeded in getting comfortable room 
and fire at Kyoto Hotel; everything crowded; 
many tourists and many visitors from the 
various warships lying at Kobe, forty-five 
miles away. 

4Mmt&ag, A;tnl 1 

The opening of spring in Japan, usually 
celebrated as a national holiday, dawned cold, 
damp and rainy ; too disagreeable for sight- 
seeing, so we put in the day visiting curio 
shops, silk stores, etc. They would not be 
curio stores unless they had a great stock 
of hideous bronze images on every side. 
Kyoto is noted for silk embroideries, fine 
porcelain, bronze, and cloisonne work. Sales- 
men very polite; tea is usually served as soon 
as a prospective customer enters a shop. 




Diabutsa at Kobe — Mrs. Price and our Courier in the foreground 



71 



In the evening attended a Japanese 
theatre. Everybody sits on the floor in 
little groups, each with a small brass or iron 
kettle in which there is a little charcoal 
fire for each group to keep warm by and 
to warm their tea by, which they drink 
constantly as they watch the fierce drama. 
We secured seats on a low rail near the 
entrance. Our courier brought in the blank- 
ets from the rikishas and we managed to stay 
during the first act, which lasted one hour 
and forty minutes. The orchestra consisted 
of about the same kind of instruments, and 
they produced about the same kind of music 
heard around the oriental quarters in Chicago 
during Chinese New Year. The play was 
on a revolving stage; the actors came on the 
stage from the front, right down through the 
audience on a raised passageway. 

SurH&aij, April 2 

Cleared up. Much snow on the hills back 
of the city. Secured two new rubber-tired 
rickishas by paying fiftv sen each extra, or 
one yen fifty sen (seventy-five cents) per day. 
Started out temple-hunting and to see a few 
gods. The suburbs are crowded with tem- 
ples, pagodas and shrines, too numerous to 
mention. Kyoto was the capital from the 
eighth century to 1868, when it was moved 
to Yeddo, now Tokio. It has half-a-million 
population, although much larger in its palmy 
days. 



72 



Among the most noted temples which 
should be remembered are Hongwanji 
Higashi, the headquarters of the western 
branch of Hongwanji Buddhists, a massive 
building with wonderful wood carvings and 
a stately temple gate. The state apartments 
are the finest in Kyoto temples. San-ju San- 
gen-do will never be forgotten, although its 
name may slip our memory. Founded in 
A. D. 1 1 50, noted for its 1,000 images, each 
five feet high ; all represent the eleven-faced, 
thousand-handed Kwannon, the Goddess of 
Mercy ; figuring the many hands and small 
images in each forehead makes a grand total 
of 33>333 images. 

The Diabutsa, "Great Buddha" of Kyoto, 
is fifty-eight feet high, although it shows 
only head and shoulders without the body. 




San-ju San-gen-do Temple, Kyoto, containing 1,000 Images of Kwannon, 
Goddess of Mercy, founded A. D. 11 50 



73 



It has gilt head and bronze shoulders. For 
400 years some great image has stood on 
this spot, but all have been destroyed by 
lightning, fire or earthquake. Subscrip- 
tions are being made to replace the present 
one with a better one in copper. Nearby, 
supported on heavy timbers, is one of the 
big bells of Japan, fourteen feet high and 
weighing sixty -three tons. It is sounded 
by heavy beams standing on one side swung 
on great cable chains. 

Of the dozens of temples we merely passed, 
and the several we went through, the two 
mentioned and the ancient Shinto Temple, 
" Gion no Yashiro," are worthy of remem- 
bering forever. The inside of these temples 
is difficult to describe. There is usually a 
large image in the background ; it may be 
of some one of the many gods they worship, 
or reproduction of Buddha, or of some 
founder of a religious sect, and there may 
be several. They are always of good size 
and very showy in design. They are usually 
surrounded by other bronze reproductions 
of hideous monsters, never forgetting to 
include a few dragons. 

The features of their gods are always 
portrayed as in livid rage. They don't 
admire sweet, angelic-faced madonnas with 
golden hair hanging down their backs. 
Neither would the calm, tender expression of 



74 



Jesus of Nazareth, as portrayed by modern 
artists, appeal to them as one who had power. 
Their god, before he commands the respect 
of a Japanese as worthy of worship, must 
have from four to ten eyes, from six to forty 
hands, with ears as big as a Missouri mule 
and an expression on his countenance like a 
seasick steerage passenger. 

Handsomely decorated silk banners and 
screens usually complete the altar ornaments. 
The woodwork is carved in a fantastic man- 
ner, with those hideous reproductions so dear 
to the oriental heart, and usually lacquered, 
a very expensive wood finish, especially 
if trimmed with gold. The finest of matting 
covers the floors, and all who enter these 
temples must either remove their shoes, 
sandals or clogs, or cover them with cloth 
coverings which can be obtained at the doors. 

A low railing, a few feet back from the 
objects described, separates those who wor- 
ship from the priests, who are seated on a 
mat on the inside of the rail, usually pound- 
ing a gong or drum and reciting a prayer, 
history of the founder of some sect, or some 
part of their religious formula. On the out- 
side of the rail, seated on mats, are those who 
wish to worship. They usually begin by 
throwing an offering inside the rail, then 
clapping their hands to attract the god's 



75 



attention. They mutter their prayers, what- 
ever they may be. They appear to give the 
necessary consolation, and it seems to me 
that is about all there is to any form of wor- 
ship, for right or wrong, the final will never 
be changed by the theories of any one man 
or any one nation. 

The temples of Kyoto are famous through- 
out Japan, especially in the central portion, 
and many of the rural population make pil- 
grimages many hundred miles to be able to 
worship, perhaps once in a lifetime, at one or 
more of these famous temples, economizing 
for years in order to be able to make the 
pilgrimage. Some who live near railroads 
come third-class; those who do not, make the 
journey on foot. In every large temple we 
saw such people, the majority on their first 
and only trip. To those people from the 
rural districts Europeans are curiosities. One 
very neat-looking peasant and his wife stop- 
ped their worship, got up and followed us 
around the temple. For a time thev deserted 
their god for a "Christian dog." After much 
whispering and a consultation, the man left 
his wife, came to our courier and asked him, 
"what kind of Europeans" we were. Upon 
being told we were Americans he bowed very 
low three times, went back to his wife, and 
they nodded and chatted as far as we could 
see them. The neighborhood in which they 



76 



live will no doubt be informed that all 
American men are very large and all Ameri- 
can women wear red plaid dresses, red hats 
and red coats. 

In the evening we attended the "Miyako 
Odori," the famous cherry dance, given an- 
nually at this season of the year and looked 
forward to as the event of the season. It is 
the most classical performance given in Japan, 
requires much care and preparation before it 
can be presented, and is always attended by 
the highly - cultivated people or those who 
desire to be considered as such. Foreigners, 
as a rule, get about as much enjoyment out 
of it as an average Japanese would out of one 
of Wagner's masterpieces — still it is a good 
thing to see. 

HUrfutfadag, April 3 

We spent the forenoon looking through 
factories of bronze, Satsuma and porcelain 
ware, and seeing how such work, which is a 
great industry in Japan, is done. They look 
like small shops when you first enter them, 
but room after room is developed by sliding 
bamboo screen doors, until in many cases 
you are finally shown stocks of wares of many 
thousands of yen in value. The buildings 
are all very combustible; fire protection very 
primitive and, as a natural result, insurance 
rates very high. 



77 



Today is some sort of a holiday; flags are 
flying everywhere, and everyone has on their 
best kimonos. It being Mrs. Price's birth- 
day, our courier ordered a Japanese dinner 
for us at one of the best teahouses, to be 
served at 8 p. m. We were late getting away 
from the hotel. For four miles our rikisha 
men trotted like horses through the narrow 
streets. They fairly flew, dodging here and 
there ; many times a collision seemed inevi- 
table, but their sharp, peculiar cry of warning, 
which everyone respects, cleared everything, 
and we landed safely. The cabdrivers of 
Naples are not in it for seeming carelessness. 

The lady 
manager of the 
teahouse met 
us, bowed low 
three times, 
assisted in put- 
ting cloth san- 
dals on our feet,, 
as is the custom 
on entering a 
house in Japan,, 
as their floor 
mats are their 
furniture on 
which they eat 
and sleep. We 




Japanese Advertising 



78 



were escorted upstairs to a room with no fur- 
niture in it except the regulation floor mats 
and then small extra mats to sit on, or rather, 
to squat on. Our dinner was brought in on 
trays, placed on the floor; two dainty little 
Jap girls seated themselves by our side, and 
three geisha girls, who sing and play, enter- 
tained us while we dined. 

Our dinner consisted of seven different 
kinds of fish, three cooked and four raw, in- 
cluding a fair-sized live one in a basket placed 
in front of each tray, two varieties of fish 
soup, bamboo sprouts, omelette, rice cakes 
and tea, all eaten with chopsticks. Mrs Price 
did not enthuse over the banquet — ate a rice 
cake and drank a cup of tea. I tasted each 
dish, but Manatto, our courier, ordered that 
meal to be eaten, and from the way he dived 
into it one would have thought it the feast of 
his life, and he made it in three courses ; the 
first being everything on his tray, the second 
everything on my tray, the third and last was 
everything on Mrs. Price's tray. A few fancy 
dances, music on three-stringed instruments, 
which would not have been so bad if they had 
omitted the singing, ended the banquet. At 
10 p. m. we bowed ourselves out and hurried 
to our hotel to get something to eat. 



79 



Gtyurflimu, April 4 

A real spring day, so we went to Nara, one 
and a half hours' journey by rail, and returned 
at 4 p. m. Between Kyoto and Nara we 
passed Uji, one of the famous tea districts of 
Japan. The tea-plant looks something like 
our sage brush bush; the plantations small 
but similar to all Japanese agriculture, culti- 
vated like a garden, every available inch of 
ground being utilized. The crop begins to 
come to market in May. Nara was the 
ancient capital of Japan, until removed to 
Kyoto, A. D. 780. 

The Shinto Temple Kasuga-no-Miya, an 
immense bronze Diabutsa,the largest in Japan, 
thousands of deer roaming quietly through a 
beautiful park, with its giant trees hundreds 
of years old, all relics of the former grandeur 




Mrs. Price feeding Deer at Nara Park 



SO 



of the ancient capital, are the chief attractions. 
On reaching the temple gate we left our riki- 
shas and walked a half-mile up an avenue lined 
with stone lanterns of fantastic design, four 
to eight feet high, the majority dating back 
to the days when the capital was located here, 
nearly 1,200 years ago. In ancient days the 
expense of lighting them was paid by sub- 
scription, but as the city has now less than 
one-tenth of its former population, that item of 
entravagance has long since been discontinued. 
The temple and out-buildings are kept in 
good repair; in fact, I am told that the gov- 
ernment protects and assists in maintaining 
many of the his- 
toric temples. 

A few young | 

girls at the tem- 
ple performed a 
sort of a sacred 
dance. The 
music and or- 
chestra consist- 
ed of three 
priests, a drum, 
a flute and 
chant ; charge 
nominal, one 
yen. The Dia- 
butsa " Great 
Buddha" is the 
sight at Nara; 




Pagoda — Nara 



SI 



made of bronze, fifty-three feet high, sixteen 
inches across the face. Although a much better 
face than the one at Kobe, it would not take 
a blue ribbon at a beauty show. Another 
great bell stood near by. 

This great temple, with its five -story 
pagoda and dozens of shrines, the immense 
image, giant bell, and hundreds of stone lan- 
terns, stands in the midst of a dense forest, 
hundreds of years old, many of the trees 150 
to 200 feet high. Great droves of wild mon- 
keys at times roam at will through this weird 
but fascinating spot, and pilgrims by the 
dozens are constantly going to and from the 
ancient temple. It has an impressive gran- 
deur never to be forgotten. 

iflntmii. April 5 

We visited an industrial exhibition, also 
the Kyoto zoological garden, containing a 
fine collection of animals. The many beauti- 
ful specimens of storks were the most 
attractive of all to us. Some large white 
fellows with beautiful black tipped wings. 
Two large specimens of American hogs are on 
exhibition as curiosities. Our guide said the 
sign over them read: "Are raised by Ameri- 
cans in large numbers and form a leading article 
of commerce." We took a glance at the palace 
formerly occupied by the Mikado before the 



SJ 



capital was removed — a mass of buildings 
covering twenty-five acres, enclosed in a wall 
that has six gates ; visitors are admitted to 
some portions of the palace, but we passed 
the honor by. After Nara, Kyoto was the 
capital from the eighth century for nearly 
ijioo years, until 1868, when removed to 
Yeddo, now called Tokio. 

We spent an hour in the afternoon glanc- 
ing (we can only glance at many things and 
get a general idea) at the Imperial Museum, 
founded in 1895. While Japan shows no 
taste for sculpture or oil paintings, as do 
many nations of ancient and modern Europe, 
they do show some clever bronze work, 
although the subjects chosen are not alwavs 
in harmony with European tastes and 
ideas of real art ; but in lacquer work, 




Bear from Northern Japan Zoological Garden — Kyoto 



S3 



cloisonne and silk embroideries and wood- 
carving thev show unrivalled skill. This 
museum contains numerous treasures of 
ancient art, bronze statues, pictures, manu- 
scripts, and weapons. Nearly all the exhibits 
have English as well as Japanese descriptions. 
English will be the language of the Orient, 
but they don't seem to teach mental arith- 
metic. In all banks, shops and wherever 
any calculations are necessary, they always 
resort to the oriental adding machine. 

At 3:30 p. m. we visited Batoku Kuai 
gymnasium and saw a fine exhibition of 
jiujitsu, the famous Japanese style of wrest- 
ling. The society is a private one and the 
members belong to the better classes. It is 
taught in every gymnasium in Japan; by the 
Jap government in all its military schools. 
With thousands of men doing the work of 
horses, tens of thousands of rikisha men, 
schools everywhere teaching men how to 
handle themselves, they come near being a 
nation of athletes. 

We visited our last temple in Kyoto, the 
temple of Kurodani, founded in the thirteenth 
century. Here, for the first time, we were 
permitted to see the private apartments of a 
Buddhist temple. Folding decorated screens, 
kakemonos (banners), miscellaneous objects of 
art and antiquity by famous historic Japanese 



artists, formed an attraction we were not able 
to appreciate. In the evening we said good 
bye to Manatto, our courier. We were sorry 
to lose him, for he was faithful, obliging and 
knew the country. No one could have seen 
more in six days than he showed us, but he 
had to return to Nagasaki to keep a previous 
engagement to escort a party through Japan. 
We ended the day by attending a cinemato- 
graph show, the only entertainment we have 
seen in Japan that we understood. The 
audience was seated in the same manner as 
at all other theatres, on the floor mats. We 
had a stall a little higher from the floor and 
furnished with two Japanese chairs. After 
using these chairs for two hours, we realized 
why the cunning Japs preferred to sit on 
the floor. 

'atttrfcaxj, April fir 

Rained hard, so we put in the day around 
the shops. The rikisha men almost go inside 
with the rikishas. There are no sidewalks. 
They pull up facing the door, drop the 
handles of the rikishas right on the door 
sill, so their passengers can step right inside 
on the floor. The sun came out in the after- 
noon and we secured pictures of our rikishas 
and men, packed and prepared to leave early 
the following morning for Tokio, having 
spent seven busy days in Kyoto, although 
three were rainy ones. 



65 



^ttu^ag, April 7 

We sent our baggage to the station early, 
gave our rikisha men each a present, and 
drove to the station in a one-horse cab and 
boarded the express for Tokio, 336 miles 
away to the northeast. Almost everyone in 
Japan travels third and second-class, and the 
first-class accommodations are limited. The 
one first-class car was crowded, and it looked 
for a moment as though we were in for an un- 
comfortable day, but we secured seats in a sort 
of compartment in the center of the car with 
some Europeans who had been passengers 
on the "Mongolia," and we were fairly com- 
fortable. The seats in the cars are on the 
sides, as I have already described, and the 
entire space in the center is usually taken up 
by hand-baggage, wooden shoes and sandals. 
At Nogoya our acquaintances left us and a 
Japanese General in full uniform put his 
wife and daughter in with us. While he was 
dressed in a modern uniform, they wore the 
ancient garb of the Japanese ladies. 

The dining car (so called) was the worst 
ever encountered. We ventured on ham and 
eggs, and they were bad enough, and tea. 
The other mysteries on the bill of fare we 
were satisfied to watch the Japs eat. We 
always use bottled water and eat very few vege- 
tables. On account of the Japs' reputation 



86 



of their manner of fertilizing, we prefer 
to eat things that grow high up in the air. 
Small sweet oranges, tangerines and a very 
fair apple, raised in northern Japan, are plen- 
tiful and for sale everywhere. 

The empire of Japan consists of four large 
islands, called Hondo, Shikoku, Kyushu and 
Yezo, besides hundreds of small islands 
and the island of Formosa, ceded to Japan 
after the war with China. We are traveling on 
the island of Hondo, where all the principal 
cities are. From Kobe, on the west, to Nikko, 
our extreme northern point, is about 500 
miles. A large mountain range, the Hakone 
mountains, containing many snow peaks and 
volcanoes, including Fujiyama, the most 
famous mountain in Japan, traverse the island 
from north to south, a distance of probably 
1,500 miles. The island varies in width 
from 100 to 300 miles. Little valleys, formed 
by mountain streams, are the agricultural 
districts of Japan, and vary from a few miles 
to thirty in width. The country from Kyoto 
to Tokio, consisting of numerous little val- 
leys, is irrigated by such mountain streams. 

All day we followed the "Tokaido," the 
great ancient highway from Kyoto to Yeddo, 
350 miles in length, lined on both sides for 
nearly the entire distance with pine trees 
planted by order of the Shoguns. This route 
was the thoroughfare before the railroad was 



87 



built in 1868. Kyoto, being the capital, 
was naturally the starting point in those days 
for everything. Great pilgrimages were made 
over the " Tokaido" semi-annually by mes- 
sengers from the Mikado and local rulers and 
their followers to pay their respects to the 
Shogun at Yeddo. This famous highway, 
no longer needed for the purposes for which 
it was built, is now merely a great public 
road used locally, and no one is responsible 
for its care or the preservation of the giant 
trees which added so much to its picturesque 
history, consequently in a very few years it 
will be only a memory. We expected to get 
a good view of Fujiyama from Shidzouka, at 
which point the railroad follows its base for 
many miles, but the day was cloudy and the 
view was obscured. 

We passed through Yokohama at 8:30 
p. m., and in twenty-six minutes after were 
in Tokio, very tired, having spent twelve 
hours on a railroad run by a government 
whose only policy is to deny charters to every 
traffic line proposed that could possibly in any 
way compete in rates or time-, or by offering 
to the traveling public modern conveniences. 
How we had longed for the luxury of an 
American Pullman car, or even a common 
day coach on our railroads run by the much- 
abused private corporations in our country, 
where our government demands competition. 



We had telegraphed for hotel accommo- 
dations three days before, and were met at 
the station by a messenger from the Imperial 
Hotel, and were soon in a big double room, 
with a cheerful grate fire, but no private bath. 
No hotel in Tokio, the capital city, has 
private baths. 

fflanbtxy, April 8 

Tokio, the capital of Japan, is one of the 
world's largest cities; covers ioo square miles, 
has a population of 2,000,000 people ; said to 
contain 250,000 houses, principally one and 
two-story buildings, many built of substantial 
material. There are many modern govern- 
ment and municipal buildings. When the 
capital was moved here from Kyoto, at the 
end of therevo- 
lution in 1868, 
it was compara- 
tively a small 
place, which 
gave an oppor- 
tunity for it to 
be laid out in 
a much more 
modern style 
than any other 
city in the em- 
pire. As a result 
it has many 




Imperial Hotel — Tokio 



89 



broad streets and avenues, several beautiful 
parks and a modern street car system, the best 
thing of the kind in all Japan; built by 
American contractors, equipped in modern 
style and owned by a private corporation; 
fare five sen (two and one-half cents) to any 
part of the great city; a round-trip for nine 
sen, or four and one-half cents. The cars 
are always crowded, and are used mostly by 
the middle classes. The better classes use 
rikishas. There are also quite a number 
of carriages in use, with Jap drivers and 
footmen. 

Although wooden clogs and kimonos are 
worn by ninety per cent, of Tokio's immense 
population, the city has in many quarters a 
European air about it that is quite refreshing. 
The Imperial Hotel, for instance, has a com- 
fortable office and a large reading-room where 




"Nippo Ginko," Imperial Bank of Japan — Tokio 



% 



one can find an occasional English paper and 
magazine. Although always fully six weeks 
old, they are newsy to a traveler. The daily 
Japanese papers, published in English, in 
Tokio and Yokohama, contain quite a bit of 
news from abroad. Among the telegraph 
items from America I today observed one 
which read: "It is not yet definitely settled 
who will succeed Roosevelt as President." 
This goes to show that they are absolutely 
reliable in everything they do publish. 

The imperial palace, the home of the 
Mikado, is but a short distance from the 
hotel. The grounds are large, cover about 
fifty acres, are surrounded by a high wall, on 
the outside of which is a great moat filled with 
water extending around the entire palace 
grounds. The palace, which cannot be seen 
from the streets, cost three million dollars, 




Main Gate, Imperial Palace — Tokio 



91 



or six million yen, which in a country where 
labor is cheap, is quite an item. To this sum 
was added many private contributions by 
wealthy Japanese, both in valuable materials 
and money. It is said to be essentially 
Japanese, the work of the most skilled arti- 
sans in the empire. The roval crowd don't 
sleep on mats, neither do they use chopsticks. 
The palace is furnished throughout in mod- 
ern style, principally with importations from 
Germany. 

The Mikado, I am told, is a large man for 
a Jap, standing about five feet nine inches, 
while the average Jap is but five feet two 
inches. The Russians, however, did not over 
shoot all the time, quiet as they keep it. I 
am told 90,000 Japs were killed on the firing 
line. The Mikado and his household have 
discarded the kimono and adopted European 
style of dress, and all those attending royal 
functions are required to do likewise. 

It is perfectly wonderful how little the Japs 
have to say about the late war. They never 
mention it unless asked, and they always 
speak kindly and with much feeling of the 
Russian soldiers, especially of the rank and 
file, who they say were brave and never ran 
from a fight, but were poorly officered. For 
a nation that has recently soundly thrashed 
two of the biggest nations in the world, they 



92 



show little egotism. Not one-fortieth part 
of the chesty development shown in our 
own country after our skirmish with poor old 
Spain. Their respect for their rulers, their 
intense patriotism, their absolute obedience 
to superiors both in private and public life, 
their natural disposition to give attention to 
little details, the enforced economy which 
they have always practiced, their splendid 
physique on account of the labor they perform, 
the absence of dissipation, the good-fellowship 
that prevails between the soldiers and their 
officers are what made the Mikado's army the 
greatest fighting machine of modern times. 
They were not led by a Napoleon, a Grant, 
or a Von Moltke, or men of wonderful mili- 
tary genius, but every general in the Jap army 
and every commander of the Jap fleet had 
behind him men who all their lives had been 
trained in the way that makes good fighters. 

They evidently distrust the Russian gov- 
ernment, but they seem to be getting along 
very well with the Chinese government. 
They are adding to their navy, and propose 
to keep a standing army of twenty army corps, 
or 400,000 men, who serve three years, main- 
taining two reserves, 400,000 each, which 
means they will have 1,200,000 available 
trained soldiers. The press of the country 
and all business men profess great admiration 



93 



and friendship for the U. S. A., and hoot at 
the statements of our yellow press that a war 
with Japan is a certainty, but the war spirit is 
abroad in their land. Their newspapers 
always have telegrams speaking of how the 
German navy, or the English navy, or 
American army, is doing something, or China 
or Russia are fortifying. 

The school children are drilled daily; all 
the school boys are uniformed with a military 
cap. During the Russian war the school boys 
held sham battles and were so intensely patri- 
otic none of them would consent to play the 
part of Russians, so the mimic war was carried 
on with sticks set up to impersonate the 
Russian army. All arsenals and navy yards 
are inaccessible to outsiders, and very few 
army maneuvers are conducted in public. 




School Children marching — Protestant Church in Background — Yokohama 



No one knows how many soldiers were in the 
field during the recent war, for all regiments 
departed at night. 

Our new guide, secured at Tokio, was for 
rive months in Manchuria with a correspon- 
dent of the New York Tribune, which means 
he is, when wanted, a government secret ser- 
vice man, for every war correspondent was 
provided with a courier by the government. 
This chap, I discovered, lived in Washington, 
D. C.j for three years. From him I was able, 
at odd times, to learn many things I never 
read. Notwithstanding all their professions 
of undying friendship for the U. S. A., it is 
quite evident from information gathered from 
European residents that Japan is intended for 
Japanese only, and it is only a question of 
time when all enterprises now controlled bv 
foreigners, Americans included, will pass into 
the hands of Japanese. If they can't force 
them to let loose one way, they will another; 
diplomatically, if possible, but in a way that 
will likely cause friction. This will apply to 




Entrance to War Department — Tokio 



95 



the tea and silk industry; in fact, everything 
but the banking business. This they can't 
very well do without, for they need foreign 
capital. 

It has been stated by magazines in our 
country that on account of their superior 
habits and reliability, Chinese are employed 
in the places of trust in all Japanese banks. 
This is absolute rot; with the exception of the 
Hong Kong and Shanghai bank at Yokohama, 
with branch at Kobe, and one other bank 
with Chinese capital, all banks throughout 
Japan employ Japanese only. 

In the evening we doubled up our rikisha 
men, putting two on each, and made a four- 
mile run to the world-famed Yoshiuara, the 
tenderloin district of Tokio. It is worth the 
while of every European to visit this quarter 
(and they all do) to see how Japan solves 
one of the vexed problems of all ages. This 
quarter covers a district one mile square ; is 
under strict municipal surveillance. None of 
the denizens are permitted on the streets of 
Tokio at night, but are permitted to sit in 
open houses built like fairy palaces, but with 
iron bars in front to prevent the passers-by 
from being annoyed by them. Many of 
these front show rooms are gorgeously deco- 
rated, and present a spectacle to be found in 
no other place in the world. As a net result 



96 



of this method, there is less crime than in 
any large city on earth, and an absolute 
absence of the lewdness and disorderly scenes 
that prevail uncontrolled at night on the 
principal thoroughfares in cities like Paris, 
New York and Chicago, where they attempt 
to suppress, and in doing so merely scatter, 
this form of vice. 

atoalmg, April 3 

We attended the Tokio Industrial Expo- 
sition in the morning, and found it well worth 
the four hours spent in glancing it over. 
It was a local affair, an exhibit of Tokio's 
industries, covering everything we have seen 
elsewhere, and much more. A beautiful dis- 
play of paintings on silk — animals, mountain 
scenery, rustic villas, reproductions of famous 
subjects skillfully done in the quaint, artistic 
style so peculiar to Japanese artists, attracted 
our special attention. Some wonderful silk 
embroidery from Kyoto was given a space 




Entrance, Tokio Exposition 



97 



on account of it being sold by a Kyoto firm 
who had a branch in Tokio. Our time being 
limited, we passed hurriedly by many intensely 
interesting exhibits. As it was a long run 
back to our hotel, we lunched near by at a 
hotel run on the European plan, and after- 
wards visited Asakusa Park, the quaintest and 
liveliest place in Tokio. 

Five minutes' walk from this popular 
plavground of the middle classes, we came to 
the great Buddhist temple known as Asakusa 
Kwannon. It being a convenient place for 
the pleasure-seekers of the park to worship, 
one sees here a queer mixture of piety and 
pleasure, gorgeous altars, dingy idols sur- 
rounded by natives in dainty costumes, 
soldiers in uniform, an occasional tourist, 
pigeons strutting around ; the clatter of 
wooden clogs doesn't seem to disturb the 




Panorama, Battle of Mukden, Tokio Exposition 



98 



many worshippers, whose devotions consist of 
stopping in front of a favorite idol, throwing 
a few coppers on the floor, clapping their hands 
to attract the god's attention, muttering a few 
words, then passing along. I never saw quite 
as motley a crowd within the precincts of a 
religious edifice. I climbed to the second 
story of the big temple gate and secured some 
good snap-shots of this picturesque spot. 

We returned to our hotel, had a brief rest 
until 5:30 p. m., doubled up rikisha men 
again and made a thirty-minute run to the 
temple of Ontake and witnessed the curious 
ceremony of Shinto priests of walking on 
fire, held on the eighth and ninth of April, 
and the sixteenth and seventeenth of Sep- 
tember. Its origin and application I could not 




Buddhist Temple "Asakusa Kwannon" — Tokio 



99 



learn, but to me it looked like a clever, very 
clever, piece of jugglery, done for the purpose 
of impressing their followers with their power. 

A heavy bed of live coals, many inches 
deep and probably sixteen feet long, was 
walked over many times by half-a-dozen 
barefooted priests, each taking about eight 
steps. It was no stage act where an optical 
illusion could be worked on the audience, 
but was performed right out in the open air 
where the wind fanned the live coals, and where 
we were so near we could feel the heat; in fact, 
some European ladies were seated so close that 
their faces were almost burned. The priests 
seemed to suffer no pain, and walked deliber- 
ately and many times over the fiery furnace. 
Whatever the secret may be that guarded 
them from being frightfully burned, no one 
seemed to know; however, it was a good act. 




Shrine of Fudo, Asakusa Kwannon Temple — Tokio 



100 



HfrimrBdag, April 10 

Rained hard until 3 p. m.; thundered like 
it does at home; spent the morning looking 
around shops. Tokio has the only real de- 
partment store in Japan, "The Mitsukoshi, 
Limited. " The venture is a success, and the 
present two-story building is to be replaced 
soon with a modern five-story structure, with 
elevators, constructed on the plan of modern 
American department stores. One of the 
proprietors informed me they had 1,000,000 
yen capital, and their annual sales were 
4,000,000 yen. The floors are covered with 
matting and kept very clean. All customers 
either leave their shoes at the front door or 
put on cloth sandals on entering the door. 
Fancy the customers of one of the big stores 
in an American city leaving their shoes at 
the front door. 




Jap Teamster and his Load of Charcoal on a Rainy Day — Tokio 



101 



The lower floor is devoted to cotton and the 
upper floor to silk goods. Many goods are 
shown in glass showcases. They use coun- 
ters, have stools for customers to sit on; broad, 
roomy aisles and an overhead cash-carrier 
system, something not seen in the best stores 
of Paris. They have a European department, 
where thev show some European goods and 
carry a beautiful assortment of the class of 
Japanese goods that the average globe-trot- 
ters seem to fancv. Many employes speak 
good English, and both men and women 
have worked in San Francisco and Seattle 
department stores. The manager whom I 
met had so much correct information about 
the management of the business of Marshall 
Field & Co., that I suspect that at some time 
he may have worked for that firm while get- 
ting his pointers. 




Mitsukoshi Department Store — Tokio 



102 



The afternoon cleared up and we visited 
the tombs of the Shoguns in Shiba Park. 
The Shoguns were the former rulers in fact 
of Japan, the Mikado not being much more 
than a figure-head until the revolution in 
1868, when the last of the Shoguns, the 
fifteenth member of the Tokugawa family of 
Shoguns, abdicated and now lives in retire- 
ment in Tokio. Several of the famous fifteen 
Shoguns are buried at Nikko, 100 miles 
north of Tokio, six in Urno Park, Tokio, 
and six in Shiba Park, that we visited. These 
tombs and mortuary shrines cover many acres, 
and are counted among the chief marvels 
of Japanese art. Each, I am told, was built 
by his successor, who called on the Diamyos, 
or Feudal Lords, some sixty in number, to 
contribute, and they in turn called on their 












>..*«* 




First Court at Tombs of the Shoguns, Shiba Park, Tokio- 
Mrs. Price in the foreground 



103 



various subjects to get busy. It is therefore 
impossible to estimate their approximate cost. 

The tomb of the second Shogun is a mar- 
vel of Japanese religious architecture, being 
the largest specimen of gold lacquer in the 
world and one of the most magnificent, parts 
being inlaid with enamel and crystals. The 
ceilings, walls, floors and all the interior dec- 
orations on the mortuary shrines and the 
tomb itself are all of gold lacquer, 300 years 
old. By comparison, it makes the tombs of 
Roman kings seem like country graveyards, 
and, I am told, could not be reproduced to- 
day for 200,000,000 yen, or $100,000,000,. 
and after having a gold lacquer box four by 
six inches priced to me at 100 yen, I can 
begin to realize what such lavish decorations 
could cost. A little daylight came across the 




Iron Lanterns at Tombs of the Shoguns — Shiba Park, Tokio 



101 



sea when Commodore Perry opened up Japan 
to the world, and marked the beginning of 
the end of that family, and there will be no 
more $100,000,000 mausoleums built in 
Japan. 

Near this park is the Buddha temple, 
Higashi Hongwanji, the largest of the 3,000 
temples in Tokio, and the largest in Japan. 
All the finest temples are adorned with mag- 
nificent wood carvings ; the designs are 
usually dragons, lions, flowers, leaves, etc.; 
the floors covered with beautiful and expen- 
sive mats ; the walls with ornamental screens 
and kakamonos, famous reproductions by 
the best Jap artists. The altar usually has 
one or more immense images ; the altar 
decorations vary according to the size and 




Tomb of Hidetada, Second Shogun of Tokugawa Family, died 1632 — Finest 
Mortuary Temple in the World 



105 



importance of the temple, the value of some 
of them being fabulous. The invasion of the 
Christian does not seem to lessen the devotion 
of these people to the faith of their fathers. 
These places of worship are numbered by 
the thousands; nearly all are kept in good 
repair, and when one is destroyed by fire, as 
is often the case, it is rebuilt. I am told 
Japan has no national religion, but it seems 
to me that Shinto and Buddhist faith, be- 
tween which there is little .rivalry, have a 
stronger hold on the people than the Roman 
church has on Spain or Italy. 

®l|ursbaij, April 1 1 

In the afternoon we visited the tomb of 
the forty-seven Roins, whose dramatic historv 
has been read bv all who may have been 
interested in Japanese history. A glimpse 
at the spot where they and their master, for 
whose sake thev were sacrificed, are buried, 
will enable us to remember the tragic story. 

iFrtbag, April 12 

When it doesn't rain over here, I usually 
make special mention of it. Today is worthy 
of honorable mention, for it is like a spring 
day at home, so we put on extra push men 
and rode around the legation buildings and 
the imperial palace. All the former are well 
located ; roomy grounds and beautiful views. 



106 



The Russian embassy have the best location ; 
the American the finest view ; the British 
the finest grounds. I called on Mr. Wright, 
the American ambassador, formerly governor 
of the Philippine Islands; enjoyed a ten min- 
utes' chat with him. A careful talker ; one 
who knows how to sum up conditions. 

In the afternoon watched a regiment of 
Japanese cavalry drill. Japanese are not 
accustomed to using horses on farm work, as 
it is not a grazing or livestock country, and 
they are not the natural horsemen that you 
find among hundreds of thousands of Ameri- 
cans. Their horses are a scrawny lot; the Japs' 
legs are too 
short to make 
good horse- 
men, and their 
performance 
was very much 
like the grand 
afterpiece of a 
modern circus, 
where dozens or 
monkeys are 
tied on Shet- 
land ponies and 
turned loose. 








; .?* :• < 



Entrance, Russian Legation — Tokio 



107 



The government realized in the late war, 
when they came in contact with the Russian 
Cossacks, their defects in this branch of their 
service, and they now have large breeding 
farms in northern Japan, 150 miles above 
Tokio, well stocked with the best Australian 
and American breeds, and propose to improve 
this branch of the service, but they can't 
make good horsemen in one generation. For 
some reason, not quite understood, blooded 
horses and cattle soon degenerate in Japan, 
and constant importations are necessary to 
keep them up anywhere near the standard. 
I think it largely due to lack of proper nour- 
ishment ; not being a livestock country, good 
hay and grain is not to be had unless imported. 

In the evening a reception was given at 
the Imperial Hotel, which was in honor of 
a Japanese ambassador leaving for his work 
abroad and General Kuroki leaving on his 
American tour. It was attended by the lead- 
ing government officials ; the commanders of 
Japan's army and navy. My courier knew 
them all, and pointed them out to me by 




Load of Bamboo Poles 



HfS 



name. I can only remember a few. Count 
Oyami, Gen. Nogi, Gen. Kuroki, Admiral 
Togo and the Baron, who attended the peace 
conference at Portsmouth. A unique affair. 

The representatives of the army and navy 
were resplendent in their gold-laced uniforms, 
the work of modern tailors. The govern- 
ment officials did not, however, look quite 
as attractive. A comic artist looking for a 
ludicrous subject, would merely have sketched 
them as they were. Their full-dress and 
Prince Albert suits were made on wonderful 
and mysterious lines, and their silk hats of 
uncertain antiquity ; little narrow rims on 
great broad-faced men; wide rims that almost 
hid their features on little narrow-faced men, 
presented a spectacle never to be forgotten, 
and to add to the oddity of the scene, the 
ladies were "all dressed in ancient style, kimo- 
nos, wooden shoes, etc., and their hair, always 
attractively dressed, was decorated with many 
beautiful combs. 

'atttrfcag, April 13 

Went down to Yokohama to get our mail 
and to see some friends sail at 3 p. m., on 
the steamer " Siberia," Pacific Mail line. 
Went out in the hotel launch to where she 
was anchored in the bay; almost wished we 
were going home on her. A fine ship, fifty 
per cent, larger than the "China" and two- 
thirds of the size of the "Mongolia." We 



109 



stood on the hotel porch and watched her 
steam out of the breakwater, down the har- 
bor, until she passed out of sight, homeward 
bound on her long voyage of 5,500 miles. 

Spent the evening in the room of Mr. and 
Mrs. Mullen, of San Francisco, at Hotel 
Imperial, Tokio. They were at our table on 
the "Mongolia" from Honolulu, and both 
played our national game well. 

>mtfoag, April 14 

Up early and left for Nikko, ninety miles 
to the north, five hours by railroad. The 
road for most of the distance runs through 
a very large fertile valley, watered by the 
Tamagawa river, which is navigable for some 
distance from its mouth, where it empties 
into Yeddo Bay. This valley is from ten to 
thirty miles wide and probably 100 miles 




Japanese Funeral — Yokohama 



lit) 



long. The farmers seemed more prosperous, 
many living on their places and not all 
huddled together as in the southern districts, 
around Kobe and Kyoto. The farms, although 
mere garden patches, seem to be held in lar- 
ger tracts also. Such perfect farming I never 
saw. Every place where there is room for 
a grain to grow one has been planted, and is 
growing; not too thick, not too thin, for like 
the cultivation, the planting is all done by 
hand and with a precision that means no 
waste, and never a weed in sight. An occa- 
sional horse is used by the farmers in these 
parts, short, stocky fellows with heavy manes 
and tails. They come from northern Japan, 
where they raise some few horses. 

Another broad highway similar to the 
Tokioda from Kyoto to Tokio, the Nikko 
branch; in fact, called the Nikko Kioda, is 
crossed twenty-five miles from Nikko, and 
followed closely until Nikko is reached. This 
broad highway was also traveled in ancient 
times by the envoys of the Mikado, bearing 
gifts to the mausoleum of Ieyasu, the first 
Shogun buried at Nikko. We came in 
sight of a beautiful snow-capped range of 
mountains as we neared Nikko. We found 
the Kanaya Hotel at Nikko, run by Japanese, 
cosy and comfortable ; were assigned rooms 
facing the river, with a fine view of the sacred 
bridge. A dainty little Jap maid, who spoke 



in 



about a dozen words of English, brought us 
some tea and toast and cakes as soon as we 
reached our rooms. Nikko is a picturesque 
spot at the base of snow-clad mountains, 
2,000 feet higher than Tokio. There are 
many pretty cascades within a radius of a 
few miles, and a grand forest surrounding the 
town, making it a favorite summer resort. 

iHouhaij, April 15 

Thirty days hence we will have completed 
our tour and be in San Francisco. We began 
the day by paying our respects to the memory 
of Ieyasu, the first of the fifteen Shoguns of 
the Tokugawa family, of which we have read 
so much since our trip to Japan became a 

certainty, and 
which was the 
real incentive of 
our pilgrimage 
to Nikko. We 
crossed the 
river on the 
footbridge built 
by the side of 
the sacred 
bridge, which is 
said to be erect- 
ed at the exact 
spot where 
Shodo Shonin,, 




Nantai-Zan Mountain, from Nikko — On very top of forest-clad 
Mountain in foreground is the Tomb of Ieyasu, the first Shogun 



11. 



a Buddhist saint, crossed A. D. 768, when he 
founded the first Buddhist temple. It is a 
beautiful piece of work, gold lacquered, sixty 
feet long, recently built in place of the one 
destroyed by flood a few years ago, and cost 
100,000 yen. It is used only by the gods 
when they go to the temple, which is always 
in the night time. Jap gods always keep 
late hours. 

Two rows of giant cryptomerie trees, 
1,000 yards long, from 150 to 200 feet tall, 
line the broad passageway to the entrance of 
the gate of the temple. A great pagoda stands 
in the left of the inside of the entrance. A 
stable, containing a sacred horse, kept for the 
use of the god, stands on the right. No one 
sees the god, of course, when he goes rough- 
riding, for this feat is also done at night, when 
there are no newspaper reporters around. 




Sacred Bridge — Nikko 



113 



One thing which impressed me was that this 
god should change veterinary surgeons, for 
the sacred animal has a very bad splint that 
needs attention. 

A number of handsome buildings are inside 
the lower court, that contain an elaborate 
collection of treasures, the property of the 
deceased. The wood carving on some of 
the buildings is wonderful. The gate of the 
third court would make a study for days ; 
wonderful not alone for the work itself, but 
in the development of the thoughts of the 
weird imagination that would lead to such 
picturesque hideousness as they have carved. 
One of the mythological animals called 
"Baku" resembles a goat, has nine tails, four 
ears, its eyes are on its back, the trunk of an 




Entrance to Shinto Temple at Tomb of Ieyasu, first Shogunate of the Tokugawa 
Families — Mrs. Price in foreground; Pilgrims ascending Steps 



114 



elephant, eyes like a rhinoceros, and the 
joints of its hind legs are bent in the wrong 
direction. 

The second and third court, leading to the 
entrance of the mortuary temple, contain 
many massive bronze lanterns, bell towers, 
bronze lions, tigers, dragons, and the two 
sacred dogs of Korea guard the entrance, 
Although nothing like the money has been 
expended on this temple that marks the un- 
limited extravagance of the temple of the 
second Shogun at Shiba Park, at Tokio, this 
one is much more impressive and larger, and 
is the most magnificent Shinto temple in 
Japan ; 600,000 yen ($300,000) has just been 
expended in redecorating and 200,000 to 
400,000 yen will be required to complete the 
work. That is going some in a country where 




Tomb of Ieyasu — First Shogun of the Tokugawa Family 



115 



people live on dried fish and rice and work 
for twenty to fifty cents a day The dazzle 
of the heathenish splendor of the great tem- 
ple fades into insignificance when compared 
to Nature's decorations around the tomb, 
which is on the mountain side, reached by a 
broad flight of 250 stone steps, a spot where- 
only the noonday sun penetrates. Here 
thousands of the monarchs of the forest, the 
giant cryptomerie trees, swing to and fro like 
sentinels guarding the tomb of this famous 
ruler. 

(Eurs&ag, April 16 

Quite cold; charcoal fires set in open bowls 
are scattered around the dining-room. Little 
chubby-faced Jap women bow and ask you if 
you think it cold. We began the day by tak- 
ing rikishas to Imaichi, through the lane of 




Bank at Imaichi 



116 



cryptomerie trees on the Nikko Kioda road 
for four miles. Some of the great trees are 
being destroyed, yet the route is beautiful ; 
but in a few years they will all be gone and 
the famous highway will become merely an 
ordinary public road. The little town of 
Imaichi, purely Japanese, was quite a curi- 
osity; a trading place for the farmers where 
they sell their rice, matting, rice-straw for 
matting and other native products. Buyers 
from the big markets come here and buy 
these products for export — quite a central 
market-place. On our way we met pilgrims 
enroute to Nikko to attend a religious fes- 
tival on the seventeenth. Among the motley 
stragglers was a Shinto priest thumping a 
drum ; a miserable leper crawling on his 
hands and knees, his wife carrying all their 




Street Scene — Imaichi 



m 



possessions on her back, their little girl 
beating a drum to attract attention so as to 
ask for coppers. 

In the afternoon we started our caravan to 
Kirifuri Falls, four miles away ; one man in 
front and two pushmen for each rikisha, and 
the guide made ten men, but it was a rough 
road. At one place the men had to carry 
the rikishas on their backs and all hands 
walked. For my part, I always walk up hill 
for these poor fellows, no matter how many 
we may have along. A Mexican burro could 
not earn an honest living carrying a load in 
this country in competition with Jap coolies. 
We stopped at a teahouse on the hilltop 
opposite the falls, where we had a fine view 
of the falls and the whole valley to the south- 
east. 




Our Caravan — Nikko-Kiodo 



IIS 



It was near dusk when we returned, quite 
tired. Half-way down we met an English- 
man on foot, who inquired the distance to 
the falls. We saw him an hour later at the 
hotel, and he told us he had "quite enough 
of it" when he reached a teahouse at dark 
and they told him it was half-way. Quite a 
lot of English travelers all over Japan. They 
carry "luggage" by the dozen pieces. No 
matter how small the town, how poor the 
hotel or how very inconsistent it may seem, 
the Englishman dons his Tuxedo for dinner. 
On a sheep ranch in the wilds of Australia, 
or a cattle ranch in western Texas, when his 
evening meal is 
served, he must 
dress like they 
do in dear old 
London. It is 
all very nice, but 
when they pile 
suit-cases all 
over you in 
those little rail- 
way "carriages" 
the average 
traveler begins 
to figure how 
many pieces of 
baggage less 
there would be 




Carrying Rikishas over bad piece ot road — Nikko to Kirifuri Falls 



119 



if they were not so loyal to British customs. 
One had with him a leather hat case with Bom- 
bay, Cairo and Hong Kong hotel labels on 
it. I began to think he was the son of a 
Lord, until I saw him open it and saw it 
filled with guide-books and maps. 

We spent little time in shops at Nikko. 
They make much quaint wood work, beauti- 
fully carved, and show some very unique 
wood paintings. There is no doubt about 
Japanese painting being a work of art, 
but the style is so lacking in detail that few 
foreigners care for it. It is also a great 
market for furs from northern Japan, and I 
presume many are from Siberia, but neither 
the quality nor the manner in which they are 
dressed, compares with the furs sold in 
Montreal, Canada. 

nrsimy, April 1 7 

Left Nikko for Yokohama, via Tokio, at 
9 a. m.; enjoyed the daylight ride down the 
valley; had a fine chance to see the Jap 
farmers at work. Everybody travels third- 
class, except the foreigners and a very few 
of the better class Japs, who travel second- 
class. Third-class travelers are simply packed 
aboard like sheep. Changed cars at Tokio, 
crossed the city in rikishas, sent our courier 
to hotel for our trunks, which we did not 
take to Nikko, and caught express train for 



120 



Yokohama. Depot at Tokio nicely deco- 
rated in honor of Gen. Booth, the head of the 
Salvation Army, who landed in Yokohama 
from Seattle on steamship "Minnesota." At 
Yokohama we lost not a second getting to 
Cook's office for our mail; received only one 
letter, dated March twenty-third. It reached 
here April fourteenth, twenty-two days 
enroute. 

I see our courier nod at army officers, and 
yesterday I heard him talking French. To- 
day I asked him if he spoke French, and he 
said "no." He told about how the German 
naval officers do when in port. Next day 
I asked him if he was ever on a German 
warship, and he said: "Yes, many times." 
He knows a lot he never told any reporter. 
I also learn he spent much time in the 




The future Army and Navy of Japan 



121 



U. S. A., and is quite familiar with things in 
and around Washington, D. C, but he has 
had very little experience with Chicago ladies, 
I can tell from the way he is getting along 
with my traveling companion. He is willing 
to enter into discussions which always end in 
finally having to do as he is first told. 

(FlturBdag, April 18 

The madam is having some Chinese tailor- 
ing done ; silk dresses ; they are cheap, good 
material and fairly well made. A number of 
Chinese firms in the tailoring business ; with 
the exception of silk, all material comes from 
London. No duty of any consequence, but 
they use American fashion plates. Japan 
has no wool industry to protect, consequently 
fabrics are lower in price than at home, and 
their labor very cheap. Twenty-five dollars, 
gold, buys a good suit, equal in value to one 
selling for forty-five to fifty dollars at home. 
While not cut in first-class style, they fit 
fairlv well and are made substantially- I 
ordered a ponge silk coat and two pair of 
pants for twenty-six dollars. An almond- 
eyed celestial, with a long cue, a sort of skirt 
on, his shirt-tail hanging on the outside, a 
vest on the outside of his coat, measured me. 
He sang off the measures to another Hong 
Kong Christmas tree, and I said to myself: 
" Here goes twenty-six dollars, for I'll never 



122 



wear this stuff;" but when he tried it on me 
a day or two later, I was surprised to find it 
a passably good fit. The firm, "Ah Shing 
& Co.," do a good business with foreigners 
and have many European customers all over 
interior Japan, for Yokohama is about the 
only place in Japan where any decent tailor- 
ing is done. I went in to see them today ; 
the place was filled with customers and the 
"boss man" was seated in a chair and a Chi- 
nese barber was shaving his head, combing 
his long hair and plaiting his cue. Business 
went on just the same. 

In the afternoon went with Mr. Corrigan, 
of Cleveland, to look over the Northern 
Pacific steamship "Minnesota," the sister ship 
of the ill-fated " Dakota," just arrived from 
Seattle, bound for Hong Kong. She is the 
largest steamer on the Pacific, equal in every 
respect except speed, and in many respects 
more comfortable than any Atlantic liner. 




Cherry Blossoms — Tokio 



123 



The staterooms are, as a rule, more roomy and 
the beds are much larger; a floating palace, so 
large the company cannot make her pay. For 
the first time since she has been on the route, 
five years, she has a full load on her return 
voyage. Her early spring and late fall and win- 
ter trips take her so far north as to make it 
unpleasant for passengers, and the subsidized 
English and Jap lines to Vancouver and 
Seattle underbid them on freight. Pacific 
Mail steamer "China" in the harbor, bound 
for San Francisco. We were comfortable on 
her from San Francisco to Honolulu, even 
in a heavy storm. She looked like a yacht 
lying alongside the giant " Minnesota ;" 
10,800 tons as compared to 30,000 tons, but 
if I were anywhere on earth and the two 
ships were about to sail to my destination 
and I was told we would have to pass through 
a typhoon, I would choose the "China." Mr. 
Corrigan, who is an old seafaring man and 
owner of a fleet of steamers on the Great 
Lakes, seemed to know all the good points 
of the big steamer " Minnesota," and the 
visit with him was a real treat. 



m 



jFrtfoay, April 19 

For the first time since in Japan, we dis- 
carded the railway and rikishas for a team, 
and drove to Kamakura, sixteen miles. A 
beautiful day, and the ride gave us an oppor- 
tunity to see a lot of Jap country life. There 
are a few roads around Yokohama, it being 
somewhat modern, but they are very narrow; 
no room to pass any vehicle, and when one 
is met everybody stops and, after lifting and 
twisting, finally pass. They need the ground 
for farming, and consider a wagon road and 
fences luxuries. The route lay through 
broken hills, where everv little tillable spot 
is closely cultivated. Quaint villages of odd- 
shaped little houses dot the little valleys. 
Little shrines and picturesque pagodas here 
and there the entire distance, until Kamakura 




Country farm houses near Yokohama 



125 



is reached, which was once the capital of 
eastern Japan until Yeddo was founded in 
the fifteenth century. It was a city of great 
importance; in the twelfth century it is said 
to have had 1,000,000 population; now 
nothing but a quiet fishing village, with only 
a few hundred residents. 

The houses of the ancient royalty and the 
government buildings were not as substantial 
as those of ancient southern Europe, and the 
ravages of time have entirely destroyed them; 
while in southern Europe, especially in Italy, 
many buildings one thousand years old are 
found in fairly good state of preservation. In 
some respects there are evidences of similar 
devotions to tombs and places of worship, for 
many of them, some one thousand years old, 
are in a fairly good state of preservation, and 




Cherry Blossoms at Gate, Hachiman Temple, built in the Twelfth Century 



126 



the oldest of the temples are used at the pres- 
ent time. Ancient temple gates, beautifully 
carved temples, giant idols, broad avenues 
among magnificent trees in beautiful but now 
mostly deserted grounds, give the visitor an 
idea of the former grandeur of this ancient 
heathen metropolis. The temple of Hachi- 
man, the Diabutsa, or Great Bronze Buddha, 
are the most interesting among the many 
sights of the place. 

We climbed the broad flight of stone steps 
to this temple, looked at the historical relics, 
many of the most valuable in Japan, listened 
to our courier's story of Yoritoma, who 
established the Shogunate in 1192, and laid 
the foundation of the feudal system of gov- 
ernment that lasted until 1868, nearly 800 
years. Had his modest tomb pointed out 
to us, and ended our sight-seeing by visiting 
the great bronze Buddha standing in front of 
it, and having our photographs taken. No 
one is allowed to photograph the statue, all 
rights being reserved. There is so much to 
be seen, so much to read about, so much to 
listen to, about this strange country, that no- 
one can absorb more than a limited amount 
of information, and no doubt I get some of 
it mixed, and time and space forbids attempt- 
ing any elaborate or accurate description, but 
this immense image deserves some space. 



127 



It is described as being forty -nine feet 
seven inches high, circumference ninety- 
seven feet two inches, length of face eight 
feet five inches; eyes are of pure gold; image 
is of bronze sheets, cast separately and 
brazed together and finished off on the out- 
side by chisel. Not quite as large as the 
Diabutsa at Nara, but said to have much 
better features. Built in the twelfth century, 
and enclosed in a building fifty yards square, 
which was destroyed A. D. 1494 (two years 
after Columbus discovered America), and 
ever since the image has had no protection 
from the elements. So far as the eye can see, 
it has suffered but little damage. Situated in 
a rocky glen, surrounded by beautiful trees, 
it presents a weird sight to people from a land 
where they are taught, "Thou shalt have no 
other gods before me." 

The drive to Yokohama ended our day, 
and we have visited our last temple. All the 
thousands we have not seen are now barred ; 
our remaining eight days will be devoted to 
getting idols, Jap gods, dragons and evil-eyed 
monsters out of our dreams. Like cathedrals 
in the old world, temples are in Japan one of 
the sights. After seeing a few of the most 
historical ones, and spending the time neces- 
sary to learn something of their history, the 
ordinary traveler becomes quite satisfied and 
begins to consult the time-card of the depart- 
ing steamers. 



128 



^aturbag, April 20 

The event of the day was the departure 
for America of the Pacific Mail steamship 
"China," which sailed at 3 p. m. It carried 
home our last mail. 

The Grand Hotel, where we stopped, is 
on "The Bund;" the water front (only a 
street) separates the front piazza from the sea 
wall; the finest water front view I ever saw 
used by a hotel. Yokohama harbor lies 
before you, with its hundreds of sea-going 
craft flying the flags of almost every nation. 
Every vessel passing in and out the harbor 
to the sea is in plain view from the hotel. 
At this time, only a few hundred yards away, 
are big watch-dogs of the English, German, 
Italian and American navies, straining lazily at 
anchor. Here, the same as in any important 




Monument erected to the Memory of the Japanese who died in the 
Jap-Russian War — FCamakura 



129 



seaport of the world, Great Britain shows to 
the best advantage. She figures her navy as a 
mercantile firm figures insurance — a business 
necessity, and they are dead right. A big 
20,000-ton battleship will command more 
respect than a continent filled with bibles, 
tracts and wild-eyed theorists on the doctrine 
of "brotherly love." 

mt&ag, April 2 1 

A very pleasant day. Spent the afternoon 
in rikishas, south of the city; rode along a high 
bluff, where the finest European homes are 
located. A splendid view of the bay. Had 
a brief rest at a teahouse in a little village, 
and returned by the way of the racecourse of 
the Yokohama Jockey Club, an organization 
composed of foreign residents, principally 
Englishmen. They have some very good 
horses, English bred, all from 
Australia; a few English jockeys, 
but they experience the difficulty 
mentioned before in reference to 
high-bred stock doing well in 
Japan, largely, they think, due to 
lack of nourishment, so they are 
shipping oats and hay from Cali- 
fornia at an enormous cost. 
Hay, forty dollars in gold per 
ton. An English gentleman, 




Somebody's Darling — Kyoto 



130 



whom I met on the road on a splendid sad- 
dle horse, and of whom I inquired where the 
animal was from, informed me he was from 
Australia, and asked me over to his barn on the 
racecourse near by, and showed me several 
good ones. What a relief to see a few good 
horses in a country where no attention has 
been paid to raising fine stock of any kind. 

This is our day of rest. The Christian 
Sabbath is partially observed in a few of 
the large cities in Japan. European business 
houses, banks and government buildings 
are not opened. Japan has no national 
religion. The Orient is the ground where 
the followers of the world's four great- 
est religious teachers meet — Confuscius, 
Mohammed, Buddha and Jesus Christ. The 
exponents of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, 
the youngest of the four, find many able men 
and sharp critics among the religious teach- 
ers of the ancient doctrines. The Japanese 
have been very hospitable to the teachers of 
the Christian faith, but the masses show but 
little interest. The doctrine of eternal punish- 
ment does not appeal to them, and no converts 
are made on its popularity. The Buddhists 
are worshipers of their ancestors. We all are 
to a certain extent. In our own country we 
have the F. F. V.'s, the Daughters of the 
Revolution, Descendants of First Cabin Pas- 
sengers (and steerage as well) of the Mayflower, 



131 



and who can beat a titled Englishman when 
it comes to worshiping ancestors; but when 
you tell with a solemn face a Jap Buddhist 
that his ancestors are probably now in the 
infernal regions, that suits him all right; he is 
willing to go where they are. So, I am told, 
that the doctrine of eternal punishment is 
now not mentioned by the pathfinders of the 
Christian faith in Japan ; that probably can 
be dropped by universal consent. 

[mtfotg, April 22 

Mr. Corrigan and his friends arrived last 
night. Many other steamer acquaintances 
are arriving from Japan, going home on the 
"Mongolia." At 6 p. m. Pacific Mail office 
received telegram saying the "Mongolia" 
went ashore on Shimonoseki Straits at the 
western end of the inland sea, a spot where 
there is a terrific current. She was in charge 
of a pilot, so the captain cannot be blamed if 
she is put out of business. If permanently 
disabled, no telling when we can get accom- 
modations home, for everything good and 
bad for America is booked up to June twelfth. 
If bad comes to worse, we can go home via 
Trans-Siberia railroad from Vladivostock, 
via Moscow, to Berlin. We can always get 
ships home from the Atlantic side. Count- 
ing some stops, we can reach Berlin in 
eighteen days, and about nine from there 



132 



home. We can go on around and reach 
Chicago in thirty days easily, but I don't like 
the Siberian railroad prospect, although many 
Americans who neglected to secure return 
passage over Pacific steamship lines, are now 
compelled to choose between the Siberian 
railroad route and the route via Singapore 
and Suez. Everyone at this time of the year 
is choosing the former on account of less 
heat and it being much quicker. 

Ulurafcag, April 23 

Up early; saw all offices of steamship liners 
to America. Siberian route the only chance 
to get home by July if the "Mongolia" has 
to go to dry-dock. Pacific Mail Company 
posted notice at 10:30 a. m.: "Mongolia 
floated." Nobody can tell how badly damaged 
she is until insurance inspectors go over her. 
They may refuse to let her make the voyage. 
Will await developments. Have all plans 
ready to go via Siberia; can start in forty- 
eight hours; soon as can go to Tokio and get 
passports. Had my telegram written to wire 
Cook's office to issue me additional letter-of- 
credit, when Mr. Corrigan, the Cleveland 
multi-millionaire, said he had a very large 
letter-of-credit with him and would cash my 
personal check for a couple of thousand, gold, 
which staggered me for a mere steamer 
acquaintance to make such an offer. 



133 



Spent much time today around factories 
and shops. Shoeshops are as plentiful here 
as at home. All Japs wear some kind of foot 
gear, a sandal, wooden clog, occasionally a 
leather shoe patterned after the American 
style and made by American machinery. 
Much American leather is also used; Amer- 
ican made sewing machines, typewriters, 
musical instruments, telephones, clocks, 
watches, machinery, railroad engines in limited 
numbers, are generally used throughout Japan. 
It is said the Japs buy only a few and make 
copies. They do to a certain extent, but they 
cannot always succeed in imitation, for cheap 
as their labor is, it cannot compete with our 
modern machinery. 

As in the case of making watches, the 
Swiss work cheap, but American - made 
watches are sold the world over. The same 
with sewing machines, typewriters and many 
other American-made patented articles that 
are protected by treaties. There is no doubt 
about the Japanese being very clever at using 
the inventions and productions of others. 
While he himself is not essentially creative, 
evidences of clever imitation are seen on 
every hand all over Japan, but original in- 
ventions of modern things are very scarce. 

Nothing I can mention more clearly illus- 
trates this to be an absolute fact than their 
representative form of government adopted 



m 



during the life of the present generation. 
The organization of their army and navy 
under instructors from England, Germany, 
France and Italy; schools, newspapers, boards 
of trade, banks, street car lines, currency, 
corporation organization, the organization of 
nearly all public service utilities such as rail- 
roads, and many other things too numerous 
to mention, are copied from their friends 
across the Pacific — the U. S. A. 

A good story is told, which, true or not, 
very aptly illustrates their passion for imita- 
ting the work of others. An American naval 
officer placed an order with a Japanese tailor 
for half-a-dozen outing suits, to be made of 
pongee silk, upon condition that they would 
be made exactly like a copy the officer fur- 
nished — a suit made by a New York tailor 
sometime ago. The half-dozen suits were 
made and delivered, all six made exactly like 
the sample suit in every particular, including 
two patches on the seat of the trousers. 

Last news we had before going to bed was 
that the "Mongolia" has been floated, found 
not to have been damaged, has been reloaded 
and is now on her way to Yokohama. Wel- 
come news, for although we expect to see 
Siberia some day, we are not prepared to do 
so at this time, and much prefer returning 
home by the route planned. 



135 



Hrfmrsfouj, April 24 

Received cards from Ambassador Wright, 
at Tokio, inviting us to the Imperial garden 
party given at Tokio on the twenty-sixth. 
Not feeling very well, and had to decline the 
honor. 

©IjttrBtmg, April 25 

Received a cablegram from home, saying 
they had cabled additional funds to me care 
Yokohama Specia Bank, and inquired if I 
would be able to return on the "Mongolia." 
Presume they had read of her mishap and 
thought possibly she could not make the 
voyage. I had mentioned in one of my letters 
that transportation was all booked for months 
ahead, via Pacific Ocean routes, and they 
doubtless figured I would have to return via 
Europe, so they acted promptly. The "Mon- 
golia" reported at Kobe. 




Jap Wedding; moving the Bride's Belongings — Tokio 



136 



3Fri5ag, Ajirtl 26 

The "Mongolia" steamed slowly into the 
outer harbor at 8 a. m., dropped anchor 
one mile outside the breakwater, and awaited 
the arrival of the quarantine officers. At 
ii a. m. she was still there with her yellow 
flag flying, showing she was not past 
quarantine. At noon ugly rumors began to 
float around that she would be held. Some 
said it was on account of smallpox, and others 
said it was a case of bubonic plague. The 
former meant a day or two of delay, the latter 
possibly ten days. On seeing her first enter 
the harbor I cabled home: "Sail tomorrow, 
1 Mongolia.' ' I wished 1 had not been so 
sure. At 4 p. m. she weighed anchor and 
steamed down the bay, and we learned that 
one of the quartermasters was taken down 
with small- 
pox since 
leaving 
Kobe, and 
the ship had 
gone to the 
quarantine 
station down 
the bay to be 
disinfected. 
A few gave 




River Junks — Yokohama 



/.v 



up their passage on hearing it was an officer, 
and some Englishmen went the Vladivostock 
route, through Siberia. For my part, I 
would as soon have the smallpox as to go 
that way under present conditions. Fancy 
a fifteen-day trip on a railroad where no one 
speaks English, where all time-cards, bills- 
of-fare, etc., are in a foreign language. 

ii>aittr&ag, April 2 7 

Notices posted stating that the "Mongolia" 
would sail Sunday at 3 p. m., or twenty-four 
hours late, set at ease the minds of the many 
passengers, who had become somewhat be- 
wildered by the recent unfortunate mishaps 
to the "Mongolia," yet everyone had perfect 
confidence in the great ship and her able 
commander, Captain Hathaway, who had 
shown such excellent seamanship in getting 
his ship floated from the bar at Shimonoseki 
Straits without damage. When all packed, 
ready to start on a journey, such delays are 
seemingly of more importance than they 
really are. 

ii>mt&ag, April 28 

The "Mongolia," lying at anchor in the 
harbor, was our first sight on awakening. 
Bills were paid ; the many rikisha men were 
busy for hours getting the anxious travelers 
to the wharf. Captain Hathaway remained 



136 



anchored outside the breakwater, seemingly 
determined on not taking any chances of any 
further delay by accident, as his ship was 
heavily loaded and drawing thirty-two feet 
of water. All went aboard by launches. 
Promptly at 4 p. m. anchor was hoisted, 
whistles from ships and tugs sounded their 
good-byes, which were answered by blasts 
from the "Mongolia," as she swung slowly 
around and started down the bay on her 
5,500 mile voyage. 

As I stood on the deck of the steamer, 
and watched the shores of Japan fade in the 
distance, I began to realize that my brief 
visit had ended, and the thought flashed 
across my mind: "What have I seen, what 
have I learned, and what are my conclu- 
sions?" I have seen a nation in a state of 
evolution. While feudalism has gone from 
Japan forever, the relics of the days of the 
Shoguns are vet on every hand, and are in 
such strange contrast with the European garb 
the nation is fast assuming, that one feels that 
he has been looking at two different worlds 
at the same time. 

Here, side by side, we see the automobile 
and the rikisha, the locomotive and the human 
horse, the modern department store and the 
little open shop with its simple native wares, 
kimono-clad natives with wooden clogs, 
riding bicycles and operating typewriters; 



139 



officers of the army dressed in spurred boots 
and uniforms of the most modern pattern, 
attending public functions accompanied bv 
their wives and daughters dressed in the 
ancient costumes of 1,000 years ago; giant 
men-of-war ride at anchor by the side of 
wooden sampans, and here and there an 
humble Christian church stands in the shadow 
of richly carved heathen temples and their 
thousand idols. It all has a meaning. It 
means that the outpost of darkest Asia is 
being penetrated by the light of the civiliza- 
tion of modern nations, and Japan will in turn 
reflect this civilization and customs to the 
lands beyond. A small nation, with very 
limited natural resources, but rich in practical 
economy, ambition and intense patriotism, 
and governed by wise rulers. 




.. 



Catholic Church — Kyoto 



140 



Japan, like Great Britain, has an unlimited 
amount of coal and cheap labor, and to give 
employment to this vast population is the 
problem that confronts their government to- 
day. They must be employed, and their 
earning capacity increased in order to main- 
tain the Anglo-Saxon form of government 
and the expensive civilization they are 
endeavoring to assume. That they aspire 
to be the Great Britain of the Orient there 
is no doubt. Buying raw materials, manu- 
facturing them into finished products, trans- 
porting both the raw materials and the 
finished products in ships flying the Union 
Jack, made Great Britain what she is today, 
and why not Japan? True, they have many 
problems to solve, and will encounter many 
pitfalls along the road to success. 

The intense hatred of Russia and jealousy 
of China, both smarting under the defeat in 
recent wars, means that Japan, in pushing 
her trade in that direction, will not be met 
by friendly competition, but of her ultimate 
success there can be no doubt. They have 
the civilization of the modern world before 
them, and can select from it the best methods, 
without the necessity of much expensive 
experimenting, which will enable them to 
develop rapidly and to accomplish in a few 
years what has required the original designers 
of modern nations hundreds of years to 
perfect. 



141 



As a neighbor and a competitor, we have 
in Japan very little to' fear. A civilized 
nation uses more of everything than. a nation 
of heathens, and they should be welcomed 
into the councils of the world's great Powers, 
and as their wealth increases, so will their 
responsibility increase, and the less liable 
they will be to commit any breach of cour- 
tesy towards us; and while they progress and 
develop we will not be standing still, and the 
difference between their present influence, 
wealth and civilization and our own will be 
more marked in twenty years than it is today, 
for Japan is not alone in rapid development. 

The whole world, of which Japan is but a 
dot, is developing, and it must not be for- 
gotten that there is a vast difference between 
developing an over-populated, uneducated 
nation, with few natural resources and a 
worn-out soil, and a nation well educated, 
under-populated, living in an undeveloped 
land, with almost unlimited natural resources. 

Our country has always played the game 
of international diplomacy open and above 
board, with all her cards on the table, and 
wise treaties with Japan, as well as China, 
should be made on the same broad plan we 
deal with Germany or England. To pro- 
hibit immigration from Japan or China 
would be foolish; to restrict it would be wise. 
The same can be said of Russia or Italy. 



142 



There are, I am told, in Germany 30,000 
Chinese students, who will average a five- 
year course of study. Their places will be 
taken by 30,000 more. These young men 
will be the leaders in Chinese government 
and commerce. One can well imagine the 
chance the U. S. A. will have in Chinese 
commerce twenty years from now, with the 
majority of their leading men speaking the 
German language and trained in German 
schools. 

Far better it would be for us if we paid 
more attention to our naturalization laws, for 
our country needs more of a certain class of 
laborers to assist in developing our vast 
resources and can safely absorb and assimilate 
a reasonable number of sound, able-bodied 
emigrants from all parts of the world; but 
this doesn't mean that every Russian revolu- 
tionist, Italian anarchist, German socialist, 
pig-tailed Chinese or slant-eyed Jap, raised 
under conditions entirely different from our 
own, and who had little or no voice in 
governing their own country, should be 
permitted to become full-fledged citizens, 
permitted to hold office and to have a voice 
in our government in five short years. That 
is the danger point we have sighted and are 
nearing. 



143 



Our voyage across the Pacific was favored 
by the finest of weather conditions. The 
big steamer made good, and the many 
unavoidable mishaps of the early part of the 
voyage were forgotten. Captain Hathaway 
and his able officers made it a trip ever to be 
remembered. For seventeen days we basked 
in continuous sunshine and gentle zephyrs. 
The ship's storeroom seemed inexhaustible, 
and we were served with all the delicacies of 
the season from a supply laid in cold storage 
at San Francisco for a round-trip voyage to 
Hong Kong, a distance of 15,000 miles. 
We had a fine suite of three rooms, with a 
private bath, on the upper deck, and enjoyed 
all the comforts of home, and it was with 
genuine regret we saw the closing days of 
the delightful voyage approaching. 

At 2 p. m., May fourteenth, we sighted 
the Farelone Islands. In a few moments 
after, the pilot came aboard, brought the 
first American papers seen for weeks, and in 
due time we landed safely in San Francisco. 
A brief rest there, a day or two in Salt Lake 
City, and we reached Chicago safely on May 
twenty-second, ending a tour of 6,000 miles 
on American railroads, 11,000 miles of 
voyage by sea, on a steamship built in 
America and flying the stars and stripes. 



144 



The events and sights of the ninety days' 
trip passed like a Meeting panorama. The 
few I have jotted down in this log will assist 
in revising the memory of many that other- 
wise would be forgotten. 

Nothing I have seen impressed and 
pleased me quite as favorably as the cour- 
teous manners of the Japanese people. The 
Frenchman's politeness may not be sincere; 
the Englishman of the "better than thou" 
sort; the German too harsh; the American 
too hasty; but there is a charm about the 
profound bow and polite demeanor of the 
Jap people that has the stamp of sincerity. 
It is surely a national trait; one of the things 
they have not copied or borrowed. Every- 
where we were received politely and accorded 
the greatest courtesy. Not a disagreeable 
word did we hear spoken, and with the 
exception of the few lepers around the 
temples, not a beggar did we see while in the 
land of the Mikado. 



End 



145 



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